Illusions of a perfect marriage
by anne black
Summary: James Sirius Potter was a selfish pig of a man, and he expected me - his soon to be ex wife - to come to a family party and pretend to be happily married to him. What in the name of Merlin have I let myself in for?
1. Chapter 1

Amelia shifted slightly in her chair as she flipped over the page in her book; she had been looking forward to her break all day just for this moment. Her eyes quickly raced across the pages, eager to find out just what exactly the main character Lorie was going to do next. Her friend had brought her this book entitled 'Peachy' a few weeks ago and she had only just managed to get round to reading it yesterday, and she could safely say that she was hooked. She read as Lorie walked down a dark and eerie corridor, her breath catching slightly in her throat as she eagerly flipped over the page. But before she could read anymore she was interrupted by one of her colleagues.

"Amelia," came the sharp voice of Jayne Harper, a short, dark haired receptionist.

Amelia jumped around wildly her hand flying to her chest as she looked up at Jayne. Her book had fallen to the floor and she had lost her page.

"You scared me," Amelia told her as she bent down and picked up her book, pushing it back into her handbag, she would have to read it after her shift now.

A smirk filled Jayne's face. "I'm sorry. But someone is here to see you; they said that it was urgent."

Amelia grumbled slightly as she stood up, leaving her bag on the floor by the chair she had just occupied. Wishing that for once she could have a full break without getting interrupted but alas that was very rare where she worked.

Amelia dusted down her Healer robes and followed Jayne out of the office and into the main part of the burns ward, she carried on walking until she could see the reception desk, her eyes narrowed into a glare as she spotted a man leaning against the counter and flirting with the other receptionist.

She slowed down her walk not wanting to get closer to him, she could recognise him anywhere.

"James Potter," she growled, clenching her fist in annoyance.

James turned around and a smile filled his face as he took her in. She wanted to smack him in the face.

"Amelia Potter," he said back, as he shoved his hand through his messed up hair.

Oh now she knew she was going to smack him, she hoped it would hurt him.

"You know for a fact that I'm not going by that name anymore."

James raised an eyebrow at her as his hand dropped back down to his side.

"Ok I'm sorry Amelia Campbell-Price," he mocked her. Amelia glared at him again.

"So are you going to introduce us?" came Jayne's voice from behind the reception desk.

James turned to face them and smiled in a way he thought was dashing, Amelia thought it looked like he had wind.

"I'm James, Amelia's husband," he introduced himself with a wink at each of them. They blushed slightly.

"I think you're forgetting that you are my **ex** husband," Amelia quipped at him.

"I think you'll find that we are still married," he said turning back around to face her.

She glared at him again and crossed her arms.

"Is there anything that you actually want? Because I have a lot of work to do and you and your butterbeer belly are getting in my way."

James looked down at his stomach and frowned as he glanced back up at her, "Are you referring to my rock hard abs?"

She could have sworn that she heard Jayne swoon slightly. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"I have a favour to ask you," James admitted honestly.

"The answer is no," Amelia said. "Now I have to get back to work," she turned around and tried to walk away but James had grabbed her arm stopping her.

"Please."

Amelia ripped her arm away from him, "and why should I do anything for you?"

"Oh come on now sweetie give him a chance," Jayne said to Amelia as both she and the other receptionist stared openly at them both.

James grabbed hold of Amelia's arm and steered her further down the corridor out of eye and ear shot of the women.

"Please Amelia you know I wouldn't ask for a favour unless I really had to," James admitted to her dropping his hand from her arm.

"I don't care James," she said angrily.

"Please, it's really important."

"And what is it that is so important that you need my help with?"

"There's this party..."

"And you couldn't find a date so you thought you would ask me?"

"Something like that yeah."

"The answers no. Goodbye James." She quickly walked into a side room, and over to the nearest bed, smiling at the patient wrapped entirely in bandages.

James followed her quickly in, rushing over to the patient's bed. He smiled down at the patient.

"Hey how are you?" he asked.

The person seemed to shrug in an 'I'm feeling ok' way. James nodded at him in an understanding way.

"Yeah I know how you feel, I had to stay in this ward too. I burnt myself really badly at work and Amelia here was my Healer. She's a great woman isn't she?" James asked nodding over at Amelia; the patient nodded and mumbled something behind his bandages.

James nodded at the patient. "Yeah I know exactly what you mean."

Amelia grabbed James and pulled him away. "Can you please leave and stop disrupting my patients? They are here to get better and rest and you being around is not helping them."

"I'm cheering them up."

"Why won't you just go away? I said no to going to this party and I am not going to change my mind." She snapped at him.

"Please it's really important, it's for uncle Ron's birthday and he really wants you there."

"But we've broken up."

"You don't have to keep reminding me Amelia," James muttered. "I know we are."

"I can't do it James."

"Please, I will beg all day if I have to. I will follow you around until you say yes. I just really need you there I'm desperate."

"You can do what you want but the answer is still no."

Amelia grumbled as she let out a frustrated sigh, it had only been an hour but James had already made her want to tear her hair out. He had been true to his word of following her around everywhere she had gone begging for her to go with him, not only that but he was charming everyone they met along the way and it was really starting to drive Amelia crazy.

She didn't know what the big deal was with this party but she would be damned if she was going to go to it. Not only would it be awkward being around her ex in laws again but to be near James for a whole day with alcohol involved she wasn't sure if she would be able to stop herself from throwing something at his big inflated egotistical head. He had been stopping her from doing her job properly and was stopping others and it was really beginning to annoy her.

"You know just because your last name is Potter doesn't mean that you do what you want," Amelia snapped at James as he once again followed her over to another patient. The elderly woman sitting in the bed with a large gauze on her leg looked up with a wide smile on her face.

"I thought you looked familiar!" She suddenly squealed, looking eagerly into James's face, "You look so much like your father, you must be proud to be Harry Potter's son."

"That I am ma'am." James said, sitting on the chair next to the woman's bed, Amelia rolled her eyes as she tried to stop herself from screaming out loud.

"So what's it like to be Harry Potter's son?" She asked, Amelia walked away from James and over to another patient to make sure that they were ok, with James distracted she was able to tend to the other patients in the ward. When she came back twenty minutes later James was still talking to the elderly lady.

"You know I always believed in your father!" The woman said proudly patting James on the hand. "I never doubted him once."

"I'm sure he will be so pleased to hear that."

"Oh will you tell him?" She blushed. "I don't know how I would be able to cope with having such a famous father, what say you Healer Campbell-Price?"

"I dare to guess that it's pretty hard to live up to him." Amelia told them, as she changed the gauze on the ladies leg. Waving her wand at the wound so some ointment went on it.

"Oh well you know what dad's like don't you Amelia?" James stated. "You got on really well with him."

"You met Harry Potter?" the lady asked excitedly as Amelia finished bandaging up the wound and looked up, waving her wand so the old gauze disintegrated.

"Yes she has, didn't you know that Amelia here is my wife?"

Amelia wanted to punch him in the face, she glared at him, and James could only smile.

"You never mentioned that!" The excitement on the ladies face now was almost unbearable. "You need to tell me everything!"

"I'm afraid that that story will have to wait for another time, James here needs to leave." Amelia said making James stand up and pushing him out of the ward.

"Come back soon dear, and tell your father I said hi!" The lady called waving wildly at James's retreating figure. James waved back and said that he would pass on the messages to his father.

As soon as they were out of the ward Amelia slapped James on the arm angrily, he held his arm and let out a loud 'ow!'

"You need to leave! You are beginning to stop me from doing my job and you are overexciting the patients," she snapped poking him in the chest.

"I will leave once you say you will go or until you will talk about this." James told her.

"Fine! Fine! I will talk about it, just as long as you leave now! Meet me at mine tonight, I finish work in three hours, you can come over anytime after that." she told him.

James grinned madly as he went forward to hug Amelia, who quickly backed off.

"You dare!" She threatened him, he backed away and held his hands up in defence.

"I'll see you later on tonight then." and with one final smile he walked down the corridor and out of the doors. Amelia felt relief flood through her as she watched him leave. Now she could finally do some work, the only problem was getting him to take the hint that she wasn't going to go to this stupid party. It was going to be a very long day.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I hope you're enjoying this story so far, I originally posted this over at HPFF under the penname alicia and anne, so I thought it might be time to post this over here as well :-D.

* * *

Amelia walked into her flat feeling glad that she was finally home, the day had been dragging on and she was looking forward to the few minutes' peace she might get before she would have James turned up at her home. She closed the door behind her and walked further into her flat, threw her keys down on the coffee table, and threw her bag onto the sofa. Kicking her shoes under the coffee table she walked into her kitchen as she stretched her arms above her head, deciding to make herself a cup of coffee.

She jumped and let out a scream, her arms falling down and clutching above her heart as she saw James sitting on her counter drinking a cup of coffee. He smiled at her cheerfully.

"How was your day?" he asked her

Amelia glared darkly as she recovered from being scared by him. "I told you to meet me here, not come into my flat. Breaking and entering is no way to win me over!" she snapped heatedly as she walked across the room and pushed James's feet off of her side angrily, he straightened himself out as he nearly fell off of the counter. She brushed the side down with her hand to move off any pieces of dirt he left behind.

"I didn't break in, I used my key," he showed her the key in his hand.

"I took that back," she told him angrily.

"My parents had a spare," he said simply.

"I want my key back," she demanded holding her hand out, James gave it back to her almost unwillingly.

"How long have you been here?" she asked as she put the key into one of the kitchen drawers, then turned around to face him.

"I don't know about three hours?" James said truthfully with a shrug.

Amelia stared at him, fuming slightly. "since you left St Mungos? You just came straight here and made yourself at home?"

"Well it _was_ my home," James stated as he put the cup down on the side and jumped off of the counter. Standing up straight he rubbed his hands on his legs, dusting them down.

"So what have you been doing for the past three hours? When you should have been at your own house," Amelia asked haughtily, folding her arms across her and backing slightly away from James.

"Going through your stuff, eating your food, using the facilities. Just the usual," he shrugged, Amelia frowned at him, before it hit her what he had said.

"You better not have touched my stuff," she warned him, thinking quickly about anything that he might take from her house and claim was his. She quickly walked from the kitchen and back into the front room, her eyes searching for anything that might be missing; she couldn't say that she noticed anything.

"I will have you know that I brought some of that stuff so technically half of everything is mine," he stated as he followed Amelia out of the kitchen and into the front room. He threw himself down onto the sofa and picked up a figurine from the table of a dragon standing on its hind legs. "Like this, I brought this."

"Well if you want you can have it back, if you're going to be that petty," Amelia growled wondering when he was going to leave her flat.

"No that's ok, I'll let you keep it as it was a gift for you," he said smirking up at her, she felt the urge to punch him again as he placed the figurine back where it had been. He looked around the room again and spotted a picture on her side of the both of them standing in front of a Las Vegas sign. He stood up quickly, striding over to it and picking it up.

"Oh wow now that brings back some memories," he said showing it to Amelia who winced, she had completely forgotten about that photo being there and wished that she had just thrown it out with the rest of James's junk.

"Don't remind me," Amelia muttered taking her eyes off of the photo and looking at anything apart from the photo and him.

"Now come on don't be like that! It was the best holiday we would ever have, you can't forget that," James said watching her carefully for any sign of happiness; she refused to let him see any.

"Are you done?" she asked shortly finally looking up at him, trying hard to not let him see how much this was hurting her.

"I can't believe you still have this up," James admitted to himself looking back at the photo and Amelia could tell that he was thinking about their holiday, the happy times that they had had.

"Yeah well I forgot all about it until you just pointed it out," she snatched it out of his hands and threw it into the bin, not wanting to talk about that holiday with anyone, especially not him. Amelia could tell how much this hurt James but she tried not to let herself feel sorry for him.

"I want you to know that I'm not going to this party," she told him shaking her head as she turned to face him again, keeping her distance from him. "I don't care how much you beg me. It will only be awkward for everyone. Plus I don't see why they would want me there especially because we broke up."

James looked a little sheepish, Amelia felt herself getting slightly angry as she realised why James looked like that.

"They do know that we're separated don't they James?" she asked, James looked away from her and shuffled slightly on the spot. Amelia let out a frustrated yell and rushed forwards to smack him in the arm. James backed away slightly and grabbed her arms to stop her from hitting him.

"How could they not know!" she cried in outrage, struggling against him.

"it just never came up!" he told her, as Amelia ripped her arms away from him and went to hit him again, James held his hands up defensively.

"How has it not come up James? We have been broken up for three months! You live with them for Merlin's sake, surely they've been suspicious."

"Well that's the thing. I don't actually live there," James admitted, Amelia stood staring at him, forgetting to hit him again.

"Where do you live? Albus's?"

"No I kind of rent a room at the leaky cauldron and no one knows that I live there," James told her dropping his hands back down to his side. Amelia stared at him for a moment before she ran a hand over her face in frustration.

"What about Albus then? Surely you've told him?" she asked, knowing the answer straight away by the look on his face. "So no one knows? Where do they think I've been?" she knew that James liked to see his parents as much as he could if he could get the time off of work.

"Well I kind of told them that you work all the time and haven't able to book the time off of work."

Amelia was too stunned to hit him again. "James you are an idiot! Is this why you want me to go to the party? So I can pretend to still be married to you? You are such a dungbomb! There is no way I am going into your house and lying to your family."

"Please! I wouldn't be begging you but I need you there. If they found out that we've broken up then they would be crushed," he pleaded taking a few steps towards her. Amelia wished in her head that he wouldn't get on his knees.

"Not as crushed as they'll be when they find out that you lied to them," she yelled at him. "And what exactly were you going to tell them after the party huh? Or were you going to wait until the birth of our imaginary first child."

"I'll tell them after the party I promise. But please!" he dropped down to his knees and grabbed hold of Amelia around the waist hugging onto her, Amelia tried to get off of her but he refused to budge, causing her to stumble slightly. "Please I can't ruin Uncle Ron's birthday this way, please, please, please, For the sake of Uncle Ron having a good birthday. I promise that I will tell them as soon as everything is over."

"James..." Amelia said still trying to get him off of her, even resorting to pushing him by the face, but to no avail.

"I am begging you. I will buy you anything you want; I will do anything you want. I will humiliate myself in the most embarrassing way. Just please say you'll be there."

Amelia sighed loudly knowing that she was going to regret her decision. But if it was the only way to get James to leave it was the only option.

"I can't just go; I have work to go to. How am I supposed to get the time off for this party?" Amelia asked him seriously.

James took a moment before he answered her, "well you see, when I left I kind of had a quiet word with the receptionist and told them that you had a dire family emergency and needed to have a few days off."

"You done what!" she demanded angrily, looking down at him but he refused to look at her, burying his face into her leg. "I could kill you for this! You had no right to do that!...oh Merlin no wonder they were looking at me weirdly and asking me if I was ok all the time."

She sighed again as she shook her head at James, "Wait...why do I need a few days off? The party is one day."

"Yeah well we need to stay over at Mum and Dad's for the weekend to go to the party. They're expecting us"

"Please tell me that you are joking" she begged, feeling annoyance flood through her again.

"I will make it up to you I promise, just please come, don't make me face my entire family alone, don't make me face the Weasleys disappointed glares because you are not there," She knew that she would give in, James could be quite annoying when he wanted to be and she just couldn't face having him annoy her for the rest of the day. It would only be two days at the most and then she wouldn't have to have him in her life until they began divorce proceedings.

"Fine," she sighed wearily, "fine I'll go but as soon as we're done celebrating Ron's birthday you have to tell them that we are over."

James jumped to his feet and hugged her before she could stop him. "Thank you so much! And I will tell them as soon as we are all done celebrating his birthday, I promise."

Amelia shoved him away from her and he stumbled backwards, "I have a few rules, you will not touch me – "

"Well we have to make our marriage seem realistic," James muttered as he bounced around slightly happy at the fact that she was coming to the party.

"Fine touching is at the minimum. You will definitely not kiss me –"

"Well we need to it's a marriage..."

"NO kissing!" she snapped.

"Fine, fine! No kissing!" he repeated.

"And stop bouncing around you are starting to annoy me!" Amelia snapped, James quickly stopped bouncing around and stayed still.

"Is that all?" he asked sweetly,

"At the moment, until I can think of some more."

"Thank you so much Amelia, you have made me so happy. Now I will come and get you tomorrow at around ten in the morning. Mum and Dad are expecting us at around noon for lunch."

Amelia sighed as she nodded. "I'll make sure I'm ready" she was already regretting her decision.

James beamed at her as he walked towards the front door, Amelia followed him. James opened the door and walked out of it, he turned back around to face Amelia who was holding the door.

"I'll see you tomorrow Mrs Potter," he beamed before walking down the corridor. Amelia let out a growl before slamming the door shut. She stormed over to her handbag on the sofa and pulled out the novel called 'Peachy' which she was reading earlier and walked over to the bathroom. She needed a nice relaxing bath before she began getting ready for tomorrow. She knew that she would need it.


	3. Chapter 3

Amelia was sat on her sofa, waiting for James to turn up. She hadn't slept much that night as she was thinking of a way to get out of this party, but she knew it was no use, she would have to go. She begrudgingly got her bag ready and had left it in her bedroom.

She looked up as she heard a knock on the door, standing up from the sofa she walked over to the door and let James in. He beamed at her and she resisted the urge to roll her eyes at his cheeriness.

"You're looking lovely today Amelia," James said as he walked in and Amelia shut the door behind him.

Amelia shook her head at him as she walked back over to the coffee table in front of the sofa and picked up the coffee cup, taking it into the kitchen.

"So where's your bag?" James asked looking around the room.

"It's in my bedroom," she told him as she washed out the cup in the kitchen sink. She heard James yell that he would get it for her. Normally she would have been suspicious but she figured that James was trying to get in her good books for today. She finished rinsing the cup and left it on the side to drain off, making a mental note to put it away when she comes back home in two days time.

She dried her hands and walked back out of the kitchen to see James coming out of her bedroom, a smile on his face and the bag in his hand.

"Are you ready?" he asked her, Amelia took a quick look around her flat for a sign of an open window or anything that needed to be turned off but everything looked good, she gave James a nod

"Lets get this over with," she told him, James quickly charmed Amelia's bag so it would fit into his pocket nicely and walked out of the door first. Amelia followed and locked the door behind them.

"So how are we getting there?" Amelia asked him, "knight bus? Broomstick? Apparating?"

"Apparating of course, it's quicker," James told her as they exited the building and walked onto the street. "If you hold onto my arm, I'll apparate us there."

Amelia gave him a sceptical look, James gave her a small smile, "no funny business I promise."

They both walked down into a quiet and disserted alley before Amelia grabbed his arm and James apparated them away.

They appeared on a field a good five minutes from the potters house, Amelia removed her hand from James arm quickly and began walking across the field in the direction of the Potter's mansion.

The mansion soon came into focus and they walked across the garden and up to the front door, Amelia feeling butterflies in her stomach at the thought of what they were about to do.

James could sense her sudden anxiousness, "are you ready?" he asked her she nodded back at him and James knocked on the door.

A few seconds later a tall red haired woman answered the door, her hair was a mess and there was flour on her apron, she beamed down at them as she saw them. Ginny Potter stood back slightly to let them enter, closing the door behind them she engulfed James in a hug.

"Oh James how are you?" she asked letting go of him and attempting to flatten down his messy mop of hair, he moved out of her reach in embarrassment.

"I'm good mum," James said running a hand through his hair. Ginny shook her head at him before she turned around and smiled at Amelia, before engulfing her too into a hug.

"Amelia dear, how are you? It's been so long," she let go of Amelia and beamed at her.

"i've been good thanks and yourself?" Amelia asked politely.

"I have been very good thank you," she turned back around and walked down towards the kitchen.

"Your dad is just in here, his helping me make lunch. I hope you are all hungry," Ginny said as they all followed her.

"Starving mum," James stated.

"Don't I know it! you always are. I bet he eats you out of house and home Amelia."

"Something like that," Amelia admitted, James shot her a quick look before they entered the kitchen.

Harry was standing at the counter chopping up some vegetables, Ginny walked over to the counter and continued stirring the contents in a mixing bowl.

"Hey dad you ok?" James asked patting his father on the back as he sat down and helped himself to a cake that was sitting on the side. Ginny slapped his hand away and scolded him for eating before lunch.

"But I'm hungry," he told her through a mouthful of crumbs.

Harry laughed as he told them that he was ok. He smiled over at Amelia.

"How are you? We haven't seen you quite a while, we were beginning to worry," Harry told her as he put the vegetables into a saucepan.

"Yeah I'm sorry about that but I've been..." she began, but James cut in.

"She's been busy with work, practically non stop," he told his parents.

"She can answer for herself James" Ginny scolded again, causing her husband to smirk.

"How is work?" Ginny asked Amelia as she continued stirring.

"It's good thanks Ginny," Amelia admitted, "a bit tiring but very rewarding."

"James why don't you and Amelia go put your stuff in your old bedroom," Harry suggested, "so me and your mother can finish lunch."

"Ok you ready to go upstairs?" He asked Amelia who nodded.

They exited the kitchen and climbed up the stairs towards James's room. When they entered the door Amelia looked around.

"Only one bed," she noticed before turning back to James who was picking up their bags from his pocket and putting them on the floor, waving his wand to make them back to their original size.

"Yeah," James said looking at her and putting his wand in his pocket.

"Where are you going to sleep?" she asked, dreading the answer.

"In the bed,"

"Oh no we did not agree to sharing a bed," Amelia snapped at him.

"What's so bad with sharing a bed,"

"You will be in it,"

"Then we have a problem," James admitted.

"Nope because you are going to be sleeping on the floor," Amelia beamed at him.

"I'm not thinking so," James told her.

"Well if you want me to keep up this little lie then I think you are," Amelia said smiling sweetly at him. James sighed.

"Fine I will sleep on the floor," James said begrudgingly.

A few hours later they had put all of their stuff away and were full from a very nice lunch that they had just eaten. Amelia found herself walking around the Potter's front room and looking at the pictures that were scattered on the mantelpiece. Baby pictures of James, Lily and Albus filled most of the frames, although a few were different. Harry and Ginny's wedding day, Hermione and Ron's wedding day with Ginny and Harry as best man and bridesmaid. A family photo of all the Potters, one of most if not all of the weasleys. And one of James and Amelia, both of them standing in front of the Las Vegas sign. The same picture she had at home and had taken out of the bin and put in a drawer.

It shouldn't have amazed her as much as it did that this was the picture they had put up. It was after all her and James's wedding day. James and Amelia had taken a holiday to Las Vegas about two months after they had begun dating, They were having the time of their lifes, but after a lot of alcohol and James's spontaneous decision they become married. James Spontaneous nature was one of the things she loved about him.

_James and Amelia walked out of the restaurant hand in hand laughing loudly, they had just had a romantic dinner and had consumed quite a bit of champagne. James pulled her across the pavement, the lights of all of the casinos illuminating the dark sky giving everything a magical glow that didn't need any help from wizards or witches. They laughed again this time hysterically as James pulled her towards a fountain, brightly lit by lights that changed colour. The place was enchanting and exciting. They collapsed onto the floor, barely able to keep themselves straight from their laughter. Amelia had to take a deep breath, her head was spinning from the adrenaline filling her not to mention the amount of champagne they had consumed that night. _

"_I'm having so much fun!" Amelia laughed she reached forwards and planted a kiss on James's lips "i always have fun when I'm with you" she added when she pulled away._

_James grinned goofily at her, "that I am glad off," he slurred. He looked at her for a moment before grabbing her hand and pulling her and him off of the floor, so they were standing unsteadily._

"Y_ou and me are off," James told her, staggering slightly as he plunged his hands into his pockets, he pulled them out and looked at the old bar of Honeydukes chocolate in one hand._

"H_ow did __**that**__ get there!" he cried before shrugging and throwing it over his shoulder, it hit a passing wizard who began yelling profanities at them, but the couple were completely unaware of this as James began marching them away from the fountain and the angry wizard. _

"W_here are we going?" Amelia asked as she followed James. _

"_This way!" James declared loudly and pointing ahead of him. They marched passed various muggle casinos, and in between those were even grander wizarding ones, including 'Gnome Grotto', 'Merlins Luck' and the colossal 'Witches castle'. Which had the ability to transport you around the entire hotel with magical elevators that responded to you're own personal preferences, and smelt, sounded and travelled exactly where and how you wanted it to. This was the same for the rooms, each one changing before your very eyes, but only once you had paid the overly expensive bill to stay in one. The entire casino was made up entirely of marble and diamonds that glittered all different colours, the staff was also made up with the most beautiful male and female nymphs and veelas in Vegas._

_Amelia smiled as she looked up at its towering turrets and was reminded of Hogwarts castle, she looked around and realised that they were far from their own hotel which was situated by 'Caesar's Palace' which in Amelias opinion was a rather pathetic excuse for a hotel in comparison.)_

"W_here is it we are going?" Amelia asked again as James continued to pull her into the crowd._

"Y_ou'll see," James said still pulling her through the crowds of gamblers, holiday makers and performers. And with James's constant yells of 'EXCUSE ME!' they made it out of the crowd. Amelia stopped walking and held onto her feet. James stopped as soon as he couldn't pull Amelia anymore._

"W_hat's up?" he asked her._

"M_y feet hurt," Amelia told him, pointing down to her high heeled feet. James stared at her for a moment before turning around so his back was to her, he turned his head to face her as he bent down slightly._

"J_ump on, I'll carry you," he told her._

_Amelia let out a laugh, "like a centaur!" she declared as she jumped on his back, James stumbled slightly as he tried to stand back up and before long they were walking down the pavement. _

"N_eigh!" James said loudly as he 'galloped' causing Amelia to shriek in laughter._

"I_ don't think they neigh," Amelia said through gasps of breath as James continued galloping. _

_They had made it down the pavement and towards a white building that looked like a chapel. James stopped galloping in front of it and turned his head to face Amelia, who was beaming down at him._

"_Are we here yet?" she asked jumping down from James's back and hugging onto him from behind, peering around to look at the building. _

"O_f course my lady," James said turning around to look at Amelia. "Do you know what I think?"_

"W_hat's that?" Amelia asked kissing James on the lips again._

"_I think that we should get married!" he declared pulling away from her to look at her._

_Amelia stared at him for a moment before jumping up and down squealing. _

"W_e can get married! You can be Mrs Potter and I can be Mr Campbell-Price!" she told him._

_James too started jumping up and down and clapping. "Yeah! I'm Mrs Potter!"_

_Amelia grabbed hold of James's hand and pulled him forwards to the buildings entrance, "lets go before all the good weddings are taken!"_

"_I hope they have a buffet, I'm hungry," he said through a laugh as they both walked into the building._

_The next morning all Amelia could remember was getting married and vaguely remembering having the pictures taken. Somehow during the night James had stolen balloons from downstairs, declaring them to be wedding balloons. Only to find out when they woke up that they were balloons for Declans' fiftieth birthday._

Amelia shook her head as she tried to get rid of the memory. She didn't allow herself to think of a time when her and James were happy, it hurt too much to remember those times. She took a deep breath before turning away from the photo. She ran a hand through her hair as she looked up seeing James standing in front of her. They didn't say anything to each other but James knew exactly what she was thinking about. She walked forwards and passed James without looking at him.


	4. Chapter 4

"I still don't get it James," Amelia stated as they both sat in the bedroom they were being forced to share. James was sat on the bed he had made on the floor and Amelia was sitting on the double bed. "How can none of your family know?"

"Because I didn't have the guts to tell them that I had ruined things with us," James admitted not looking up at her.

Amelia let out an annoyed cry, "But no one knew! How is that even possible? You and your cousins are close, how have you not told them? How did it not slip out?"

James coughed slightly before he sat up straight, "If I'm perfectly honest. I haven't seen much of them since we broke up. I've just been hiding away on my own, or claiming that both me and you were busy." He fiddled with the cover he was sitting on, still not looking up at her; he gave a shrug as he continued.

"It just came out one day when I was tired of them asking when we were going to go over to see them and I told them that me and you had plans ...It just escalated from then on and I just lied more."

Amelia rolled her eyes at her husband, they had yet to get divorced, now that James had got back in touch with her, she was going to tell him after this weekend that she wanted proceedings started, "You should have told them. They're going to be so annoyed at both of us for lying to them once this is all over."

"I'll take all of the blame don't worry," James admitted finally looking up at her.

"Damn straight you will!" Amelia shot out annoyed as her arms crossed "I just can't believe it! You haven't even told your parents!** My** parents knew a few days after it happened. My brother knew the day I kicked you out!"

Amelia had written to her parents who had resided in Romania since Amelia began her healer training, a few days after it had happened. They had only met and spoken to the Potter family at the party James and Amelia threw after they got back from Vegas to celebrate their nuptials, other than that they had only communicated when either James or Adam spent time at the others house. Amelia's brother was a different story, having been best friends with James since they were at school he had wanted to hurt James as much as he could (Mostly the reason why they weren't friends anymore). The only thing stopping him was Amelia who had told him that it was not worth it and that she just wanted to deal with it alone.

"I was expecting your brother to go round telling everyone what happened. I'm actually surprised it didn't make it into the Daily Prophet," James admitted with a laugh, causing Amelia to look up and glare at him.

"Well unlike you, Adam actually cares if I get humiliated or not. I told him that it wasn't anyone else's business and he's been trustworthy enough to keep his word. The same can't be said for certain people."

"There was a dig towards me in that speech wasn't there?" James asked, Amelia shook her head angrily at him before she grabbed her night things and stormed into the bathroom, pushing passed him on her way and muttering about how James was the most untrustworthy person she knew.

James let out a sigh as he stood up and walked out of the room to use the bathroom down the hall so he could get ready for bed. Thinking about how he always knew how to do and say the wrong thing, he let out a sigh before deciding to apologise when he got back to the room for what he had said about Adam. But when he finally made it back to the room Amelia was snuggled under the covers with her back to him. Either asleep or pretending to be just so she could avoid having a conversation with him.

James took a deep breath before he put his stuff away and then lay down on his makeshift bed, turning so he was facing her. Waving his wand the light went out; leaving them in darkness.

He placed his wand away before he looked at where he knew she was laying, wishing more than anything that he could lay next to her.

Amelia tossed and turned, trying to get comfortable again. A loud noise was filling the room and it had woke her up about five minutes ago. For a while after she had awoke she tried to figure out where the noise had come from and it wasn't until she lifted her head to look over at James sprawled out on the floor did she work it out.

Letting out a loud groan she pulled a pillow over her head to drown out the noise but to no avail, the noise from James's snoring was too loud. She couldn't believe that she had forgotten about it. She let out a growl before getting out of the bed angrily throwing the covers down and scraping her hair away from her face. She looked down to see James sprawled over most the floor, his arms stuck out at odd angles and his mouth open, drooling into his pillow. Amelia glared down at him; he was blocking her way to the bathroom.

She walked over James, causing him to stop snoring and to let out a oomph as she walked into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her and not caring if it had woke him up. Feeling quite pleased with herself that she had caused him pain she locked the door and turned on the shower.

After getting washed, dried and dressed she walked out of the bathroom to see that James was already dressed and had put his blanket and pillow onto the bed, making it.

"Where did you wash?" she asked him concerned that he had just got dressed, which wouldn't have surprised her in the slightest.

"Albus's bathroom," he said with a shrug before he ran his hand through his hair again, she forgot how much of an annoying habit that was.

"Are you ready for breakfast?" he added.

"I suppose," she said haughtily.

"Oh and why exactly did you tread on me this morning?" he asked as he opened the door for her and they both walked out of the room and over to the stairs.

Amelia tried to hide her smirk, "well you woke me up with your snoring so I thought that, that was the only way to wake you up," she walked in front of him to go down the stairs.

"And you didn't think to just shake me awake or call my name?" he asked an eyebrow raised at her.

She shrugged at him, "it never crossed my mind."

James shook his head as he walked in front of her, leading them to the kitchen. The smell of bacon wafting through the now open door and Amelia felt her stomach rumble slightly.

"Good morning," Ginny beamed at them, standing at the stove as she fried bacon. Amelia could see eggs cooking in another pan and sausages sizzling away. She forgot how much she loved Ginny's cooking, almost rivalling that of Molly Weasleys (James's Nan and Ginny's mum's); Harry was sat at the kitchen table, a coffee in one hand and the Daily Prophet in the other. He was reading intently but looked up and gave them a smile as they entered the room. He was dressed in his work robes and was ready to go to work after his breakfast.

James pulled out a chair for Amelia to sit down and she took it sceptically wondering what James was up to. He merely smiled down at her before he too sat down. Amelia turned to face Ginny.

"Was there anything that I could help with?" she enquired; Ginny looked up and smiled thankfully for her offer.

"That's really nice of you dear but I'm almost done," she returned to her cooking and Amelia turned around to face the others.

"So where are Albus and Lily?" James asked his father as he leaned forwards, stealing some of his coffee. Harry gave him a scolding look before answering.

"At your Nan and granddad's. They needed help with the party and Lily and Albus offered to help them, they should be back any moment" Harry told them as he set down his Daily Prophet and smiled as Ginny sent over everyone's breakfast, sending it floating through the air and setting down in front of them. She too came walking over and sat down to eat.

Amelia thanked her before she dug in; it was as delicious as it smelt.

"How's work dad?" James asked through a mouthful of egg, Ginny smacked him slightly around the back of the head and he turned to her, "what!" he said through egg again. Ginny shook her head at him.

"Swallow your food before talking James, I've brought you up better than that," she scolded, turning back to her own breakfast.

"It's going good James, I just have to pop in for a few hours and make sure everything is running according to plan, you know how we're going to be awa..." but he was interrupted by James coughing loudly.

Everyone turned to him in concern, "are you ok?" Ginny asked patting him on the back; James nodded and drank some of his father's coffee again.

"Oh for Merlin's sake James just have the drink," Harry said with a shake of his head as he stood up picking up his now empty plate and placing it in the sink. He waved his wand and it was cleaned within seconds. He turned back to Ginny and gave her a quick kiss. "I should be off. Thank you for the breakfast love, it was as delicious as always."

He walked off with a wave at the other two and exited the room. James immediately stopped coughing and seemed to be back to normal; Amelia frowned at him wondering just what exactly he was up to just now.

"I'll just clear these up," Ginny said standing up and picking up all of the empty plates, Amelia stood up quickly to help her but Ginny shook her head.

"Don't be silly dear," she shooed her away, "you and James go do whatever you want to do."

James nodded at his mum and thanked her before grabbing hold of Amelia's hand and pulling her out of the room. Amelia waited until she was out of sight before wrenching it away from him, ignoring the fact that it gave her butterflies.

"What happened in there?" she asked him pointing back to the kitchen.

"We had breakfast," James told her stupidly, Amelia shot him a glare.

"I meant at breakfast, what was with the coughing whilst your dad was talking?" she asked suspiciously.

"I choked on my food," he said a confused frown on his face, "I apologise if I didn't chew properly."

Amelia gave him a disbelieving look before walking into the front room.

"So what do you want to do now?" James asked her.

"Spend as much time away from you as possible," Amelia told him as she sat down on the sofa and looked around her.

"Well that's mature of you," James said sitting down next to her, she edged away from him.

"I'm more mature then you," she snapped as he edged closer, he rested his arm behind her and she turned to glare at him. "Don't you even think of touching me," she warned him.

James was about to open his mouth to reply when the door opened and Ginny placed her head around the door, James quickly threw his arm around Amelia's shoulder and she had to hide her grimace under a smile.

"How are you two doing?" she asked them, "Would you like a drink or anything?"

Amelia shook her head politely as James was about to open his mouth, Amelia nudged him in the side knowing that he was going to ask for more food. He yelped slightly before telling his mother that he didn't need anything. She was about to say something else when the doorbell rang.

"Oh Albus and Lily are finally here," she walked out of the room to answer the door; James took this opportunity to face Amelia.

"How did you know that I was going to ask for more food?" he asked her, Amelia rolled her eyes as she shoved his arm off of her and stood up.

"When **don't** you ask for more food," she stated before folding her arms down at him. "And will you please stop touching me..."

"Whoa had an argument!" came the voice of Albus Potter. Amelia turned around and smiled as Albus walked forward and hugged her. She hugged him back tightly. The family she had missed, James more then she liked to admit. Albus was around the same height as her and looked a lot more like his father then James did.

"Something like that," Amelia admitted still hugging Albus.

"Hey, hey, hey!" James said standing up and pulling them apart from each other, "I think you'll find that she is my wife and not yours!" he threw his arm around Amelia and beamed down at her.

"Although I have tried to steal her," Albus said with a wink at Amelia, who smiled. "Don't worry she'll figure out soon enough how much of an idiot you are and come for the smarter more attractive Potter"

James shoved him playfully and removed his other arm from Amelia to hug his sister who had just come into the room.

"Hey Lilykins," he said hugging her tightly, she pushed him away from her and shot him a glare.

"What did I say about calling me that?" she snapped, shaking her head before walking forward and hugging Amelia, "how have you been? I haven't seen you in so long!"

"You haven't seen me in so long either!" James pouted sounding slightly hurt that his sister had shoved him away.

"Yeah well I like Amelia," Lily said poking her tongue out at her brother who clutched at his heart as though she had shot him.

"Now that hurt!" he said, "that really hurt."

"But not as much as your ugliness hurts me," Albus said seriously, James reached forward and grabbed him in a headlock, Albus let out a cry as he tried to shove him off.

"Take it back!" James yelled rubbing his knuckles into his younger brother's hair, Amelia and Lily sighed at their antics before turning to each other.

"I've been good thanks; I've just been busy working, how about you?" Amelia said ignoring the boy's yells, and answering Lily's question.

"I've been good, still in training to be a teacher," Lily told her.

Amelia beamed at Lily, in all the time Amelia had known Lily she had talked about wanting to be a teacher, "Oh how's that going? You want to be a defence against the dark arts teacher don't you?"

Lily nodded, "yeah I can't wait! I love it so much, you can learn all different sorts of..." she stopped when she got knocked sideways by the tussling boys, she turned to glare at them angrily. "HEY! Quit it. You're going to break something."

Amelia turned just in time to see them rush sideways and push a few ornaments off of a cabinet, the crash echoing through the front room. The boys immediately jumped apart, both of their hair outrageously messed up. "Uh-oh," they both cried in unison.

The thundering steps of Ginny potter could be heard coming down the stairs and she entered the room, looking down at the broken china with a gasp.

"How could you! That was my favourite gift from your father! - How did this happen?" she demanded anger etched over her face. James and Albus recoiled slightly.

"Well you see...the thing is..." James began.

"James did it." Albus said with a shrug.

Ginny fumed as James smacked his brother in the stomach. "You are adults! It's about time you started acting like ones! Now you clean this mess up and go get ready for the party. You wait until your father gets home and finds out." She glared at the two boys until they started pulling out their wands. "Oh no! Not with wands. I want you to go and get the broom," Albus stood up with a sigh and left the room to get the broom.

"Would you both like to go get ready now?" Ginny asked entirely calm to the girls who nodded slowly, "the boys will be up shortly."

Amelia and Lily edged passed James, Ginny and Albus who had just come back with the broom and walked up the stairs.

"Well I suppose we should go get ready," Lily laughed as she left Amelia at James's room, "I'll see you in a while."

"Yeah, I'll see you soon," Amelia opened the door and walked in, going over to her suitcase and grabbing her dress. She hung it up and grabbed her wand. Muttering a spell it became wrinkle free, smiling to herself she grabbed her makeup bag and headed into the bathroom, thankful that James had his own en-suite and she didn't have to fight for the bathroom with anyone.

James walked into the room after Amelia had put her make up on and was starting on her hair.

"Have fun?" she asked with a laugh, looking at him in the mirror.

"Oh yeah nothing as fun as cleaning up all day. My family is crazy I tell you."

"Well Lucy's not bad. The only good thing about this party is I get to see her," Amelia stated as she brushed her hair. James looked sheepish again and tried to hide his face but Amelia saw him. She whirled around.

"What was with the look?" she asked him, pointing her brush at him. He looked down at it before looking back up at her.

"Well you see the thing is, she's in Switzerland with her muggle friends and their airplane has kind of got delayed by a day. So she is stuck there until tomorrow."

"How long have you known this?" she said threateningly, this time poking him in the chest with the brush.

"Since mum told me about ten minutes ago."

Amelia narrowed her eyes at him. "I can't believe that the one family member who I get on really well with is not even going to be there!"

"You get on with my other family members," James stated slowly, "I don't see what the problem is?"

"The problem is I've got to be with you!" she snapped turning around and going back to sort her hair out. "At least I hung around with Lucy at school so I have something to talk to her about."

"But Amelia..." James started.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready for the party?" she interrupted him.

James sighed before he grabbed his stuff and walked into the bathroom.

"Why? Why did I agree to this?" she growled pulling the hairbrush through her hair angrily.

"Did you say something sweetheart?" came James voice through the door.

"GO JUMP OFF A CLIFF!" she yelled back at him.

"...I love you too honey," James told her.

Amelia let out a roar of anger before throwing her hairbrush at the bathroom door.


	5. Chapter 5

To say that Amelia was a bag of nerves would be an understatement, her stomach felt like it was full of bubbles and a feeling of sickness was sweeping over her (not helped by the fact that she had apparated over here with James's family).

Staring up at the house belonging to James's Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione made Amelia worry; she just knew that people were going to find out about her and James. She cursed James in her head as she took a deep breath; it was going to be a long night.

She brushed down her dress and made to walk up to the house, when all of a sudden a hand came out of nowhere and brushed her hair out of her face, she reacted wildly all arms and elbows flailing around, some of which caught James in the midriff. She pushed her hair away from her face and glared at him.

"What did I say about touching me!" she growled pointing at him threateningly. She could hear Albus laughing in the background.

"But you had a hair..."James began holding on to where she elbowed him, "I was just helping..."

"I do not need help from you thank you very much," she snapped walking passed him and following Lily. James rushed after her.

"Yeah but I thought..."

"Well you thought wrong," she shoved him away from her, "and stop walking so closely!"

Albus sniggered as he walked next to James and shoved him slightly so he fell into Amelia who shoved him back, "Quit it," she said loudly.

Harry turned around, "did someone say Quidditch?"

"Yeah Amelia, she loves Quidditch," Albus remarked. James elbowed him in the side. Or he would have if Albus didn't move and James got Lily instead, who squared up to him.

"What is your problem Jimbo?" Lily said pushing him slightly in the shoulder and raising an eyebrow as though daring him to push her back.

"Stop calling me that! I'm in my twenties, not seven." James snapped.

"You could have fooled me," Harry mentioned, looking at Amelia over his glasses with a smile on his face, Amelia smiled back.

Ginny turned around and glared at her husband before turning to look at her children.

"Potters," she bellowed, "stop it!"

All of the Potters, except Amelia, and including Harry, all hung their heads. "We're sorry."

"Now we are going to behave tonight and how are we going to do that?" she asked her hands on her hips.

"Not get into any fights," Albus started.

"Or drink more then we should," James offered.

"And be on our best behaviour," Harry added.

"And what is this not going to be?" Ginny asked them sternly, Amelia was extremely amused by what was going on and the power Ginny seemed to have over her family.

"Another Christmas dinner fiasco," James muttered.

"Although that was entirely Lily's fault," Albus stated.

Lily looked up and glared at him, "YOU SET ME ON FIRE!"

"ENOUGH!" Ginny yelled. "Now walk nicely up to Uncle Ron's house and if you put another toe out of line, we are going straight back home."

All of the Potter's trudged up to the house, Amelia trying not to giggle to herself, as Ginny was standing next to her and sometimes Ginny scared her.

Harry reached forward once they had got to the door and rang the doorbell. Two seconds later Ron had yanked open the door and beamed down at them. He had a bright pink party hat on and a badge saying 'still sexy at one hundred'.

Harry had to stifle his laughter, "one hundred eh?" he asked.

"George gave it to me," Ron grumbled at him, "and it won't come off."

"Well you look good for your age Uncle Ron," Albus said walking up the step and patting his Uncle on the back.

"Ha ha very funny, come in, come in!" he said beckoning them all in, "how are you all?"

They all walked up the steps and before they could answer he had spotted Amelia, elbowing everyone out of the way he got closer to her, "Amelia! You finally got time off of work!" he took Amelia by the arm and dragged her into the house and out to the kitchen, where Hermione was currently placing cakes onto a plate.

"Hermione look!" Ron said excitedly, Hermione looked up at him with a scowl.

"Ronald seriously there is no need for...Amelia! I'm so glad that you've made it," she said wiping her hands on a tea towel before walking forward and hugging Amelia. She pulled away and looked at Amelia a smile on her face.

"How are you?" she asked.

"I'm good thanks, how about you?" Amelia answered a smile filling her face, still feeling incredibly nervous, if anyone was going to see right through her and James's facade it would be Hermione Weasley.

"I'm very well,"

There was a cough from the door and they turned around to see James standing at the door.

"Hi there, remember me your Godson? If it's not too much trouble can I have my wife back? I kind of need her," he told them. Hermione rolled her eyes at James as Ron said, "Oh James didn't see you there."

"Yeah because I was elbowed out of the way!"

Amelia smiled at Ron and Hermione before walking over to James, careful to avoid his outstretched hand, he chose to place it on the small of her back and she glared at him.

"Trying to make it look realistic love," James said quietly at her.

"Yeah well you go any lower and I will cut your hand off," she said through gritted teeth a smile on her face.

They walked out of the house and into the garden where most of the guests were situated.

The Weasleys all standing near the door all turned to look at them as they entered, smiles filling their faces as they began walking forwards. James beamed wildly moving forward holding his arms out.

"Yes, yes James is here. Form an orderly queue for hugs!" he watched in horror as they bypassed him, ignoring him completely and going over to Amelia.

"I can't believe you've made it!"

"We were sure James made you up!"

"How could he have made it up? We all went to school together."

James turned around to face his family, "Hey! What about me?"

"What about you?" Louis Weasley asked looking over at his cousin; Louis looked very much like his father Bill and was just as good looking as his mother Fleur, "we see you all the time."

"You haven't seen me in three months," he told them hurt, "I'm your blood relative! Blood! BLOOD!"

"James you should stop saying blood," Louis said looking back at Amelia. "You're going to start freaking people out."

"Blood," James sniffed as Amelia was led away by Louis and Roxanne, another one of James's many, many cousins on the Weasley side.

"Don't worry James I'm sure someone in the family still likes you," Fred said walking over to James and patting him on the back, he stood with him for a few seconds before walking over to talk to his father George, leaving James all alone at the door.

James stood dejectedly staring out hopefully at his family. A pat on his back made him turn around and he saw the George was looking at him with a smile on his face. James could see Fred standing where his father had been, very confused and yelling after him, "Dad...dad...DAD!"

"One minute son I'm with my favourite nephew," George said back.

"Really?" James said hopefully as his face lit up with joy, "I'm your favourite."

"Yeah," George said moving his arm behind him and seeming to just pull Amelia out of the crowd of Weasley's that had congregated some sort of shield around her. "Because you married this broad!"

Amelia shot him a glare.

"I apologise Amelia we've had this talk before and I won't call you that again. May I buy you a drink?" George said removing his arm from James and putting one around Amelia, James looked devastated.

"But they're all free!" James cried.

"Not at the next party they're not," George said with a wink, "the party in my pants!"

Amelia just stared at George and then bit her lip to stop herself from laughing as Georges wife came into view.

"Ahem!" she coughed.

"Oh hello Mrs Weasley!" Amelia said brightly to Angelina who was scowling at her husband.

George jumped out of his skin and turned around, "but...but ...it's a real party I swear! It's a club. Do you remember I took you on our first date?"

"No George I said it was pants, there is a difference. Just like sleeping next to me and in the next room to me. Now stop hitting on your nephews wife and get over to talk to your mother."

"Oh my, she heard me from all the way over here?" George cried in a fearful tone before whirling around to face his mother who was scowling from across the room.

"I just have to go see...err... bye!" and with that George had run off in the direction of Bill. Angelina shook her head at her husband before walking away a scowl on her face.

"Would you like a drink?" James asked Amelia after Angelina had walked over to Oliver Wood.

"No I'm ok," Amelia told him, "Fred got me one just now," she indicated the half empty glass in her hand.

"Then I'll just go get myself one," James said slowly before walking away from her.

He walked over to where the drinks were situated next to where Angelina was standing; Ron had appeared next to them a few moments later.

"Hey Olive,r," he said in passing before he stopped and looked back at Oliver with a frown on his face, Oliver was still talking to Angelina and hadn't noticed. Ron turned around and scanned the crowd at his party guests, pointing at a few in turn. "Lee Jordan... Alicia Spinnet... that guy who stalked Fred and George in the fourth year at Hogwarts; Bob or something like that... Julian from Hufflepuff" Ron stopped and let out a gasp - he was never friends with anyone from Hufflepuff, something peculiar was going on.

"George!" Ron yelled, storming over to George who was talking to Bill and trying to hide from his mother at the same time, "Why are all your friends at **my** party?" he asked hands on his hips, his hat had by now fallen to the side of his head, adding a comical effect.

"Well to be honest, you have no friends," George said with a shrug, Bill stifled a smirk.

"Harry is my friend!" Ron stated.

"Possibly your only friend," George stated before going back to talk to Bill.

"No he is not! What about Hermione?" Ron said pulling his brother back around to face him.

"She's now your wife, therefore no longer your friend."

"What about Bill from accounting?" Ron suddenly yelled causing Bill to roll his eyes and start walking away.

"Don't drag me into this!" he said before going over to talk to Percy.

"Now look what you've made me do! I've lost a friend!"

"You lost him yourself," George said. James sighed and decided to leave before Ron tried to bribe him into being one of his friends and not just a family member.

He caught up with Albus at the present table, shaking one of the larger ones labelled fragile.

"What are you doing? He frowned at him.

Without a second thought Albus who was still shaking the present said, "present control, I don't want Uncle Ron getting any socks like last year."

"That was something you gave him," James cried.

"No," Albus said putting the present down and picking another one up, "That's what dad got him. I got him a funky tie!"

"You are crazy," James said with a shake of his head as he made to walk away, but at that moment Hermione walked over and saw Albus, who quickly put the present down.

"What a great idea Albus! We should get Ron to open his presents now," Hermione said as she turned around to look for Ron. She spotted him standing near to a scared looking Dominique and Victoire who was trying to escape from Ron, who seemed to have blocked them into a corner and was attempting to teach them a dance move, probably in an attempt to make them his 'friend's' James thought. Arms flailing and legs kicking, the girls backed away from their Uncle. Hermione tutted and rolled her eyes as she quickly rushed forward, muttering about how, 'she is always the one to save people'.

"Ron, RON!" Hermione said causing Ron to stop his dancing and look at his wife; he let out a cheer as he threw his arm around Hermione's shoulders. Dominique and Victoire looked relieved at having Ron distracted. "How about you come and open some presents?" Hermione suggested with a smile.

"Yeah, Ok let's go!" he yelled, walking with Hermione over to the table of presents. The rest of the partygoers were still enjoying the party. Some family members though had broken off from their groups to see what it was that Ron had got for his birthday, most of them wondering if they could steal it for themselves.

Ron sat down and pulled Hermione around so she was standing to his side.

"Well I don't know about what's in the pile of present's but I know Hermione's present, she'll be showing me later on in the bedroom," he said with a wink at Hermione who blushed slightly and hit Ron on the arm. Most of the family made disgusted faces and went, "eeeew!"

"Uncle Ron! Please there are children around," James said, moving to behind Amelia and wrapping his arms around her, she responded by elbowing him in the ribs, he doubled over slightly in pain but kept his grip on her, whispering into her ear that his family are going to notice if they're not standing near each other. He heard her grumble at him but let him stay where he was, her arms had stayed folded and she stood straight, not letting herself lean into him.

"Yeah! And some of these people are your **own** children," Rose snapped clearly embarrassed at her father's behaviour.

"And how do you think you got here? Brought by a Hippogriff?" Ron shot back at her as he pulled the first parcel towards him.

"No, everyone knows Hippogriffs don't bring babies. Only an idiot would believe that," Rose mumbled shaking her head and narrowing her eyes at her father.

"What? Mum!" Albus cried suddenly, a heartbroken look filling his face, his girlfriend Mariah Hayes who had arrived at the party before them had placed a comforting hand on his shoulder, "You said Hippogriffs brought babies to parents, Is that not true?" he cried, "my whole childhood has been ruined!"

Ginny glared at her son and made a step forward; Harry held her back and put an arm around her to help calm her down. Albus's heartbroken face quickly broke into a smile. James shook his head at his brother.

"What?" he asked as everyone looked at him, "that was funny!"

Ron coughed slightly before going back to opening his present, completely ignoring the name tag.

"Honey," Hermione said picking up the forgotten name tag as Ron pulled a face of revulsion at the jumper in his hand, "you're meant to read the name tag first so you know who it is from," she held it out for him and Ron took it reading it quickly.

"Dear Ron, Harry birthday love from Harry, Ginny and the family," Ron looked up at a beaming Harry, "HARRY birthday? Seriously? That wasn't even funny the first time you wrote it."

Harry continued beaming at Ron, "oh you loved it!"

"But a jumper?" Ron cried holding out the jumper and waving it around.

"Ron stop being ungrateful," Molly Weasley senior snapped looking at her son reproachfully.

"He's minted mum," Ron said turning around to face his mother who was staring at him in disbelief that he was acting this way, before turning back to Harry, "for my thirtieth you got me a pair of socks and now this!"

"In my defence those socks had tiny pictures on them," Harry told him, his arm still around Ginny. Everyone in the family was watching the conversation like a tennis game, all of their heads turning from Ron and Harry.

"They were pictures of you!" Ron snapped shaking his head as he 'folded' up the jumper, "but thanks for the jumper you know, I'll wear it all the time...blah blah blah," he said before reaching for another present. Harry sighed as he let go of his wife before he walked forward and stopped Ron.

"If you just stop sulking I can give you your other present,"

"Well what's better then a jumper?" Ron said sarcastically as Harry bent down and picked up a long package. A hopeful look filled Ron's face at the present as he bounced slightly on his chair. He took it from Harry and began ripping it open. He let out a loud 'manly' scream as he looked down at the newest broom model available, complete with accessories. Everyone looked at the broom in awe, except all of the Potter children who were looking at their father anger, disbelief and jealousy written all over their faces.

"Hey, hey, hey!" James protested removing his arms from Amelia and pointing at the broom, Harry looked at his children calmly, "You can afford to give Uncle Ron this state of the art broom and not your own children!"

"You children get enough from me and your mother," Harry told them, Ginny nodded along with his statement.

"But he's old!" Lily cried pointing at Ron who was running his fingers up and down the broom in awe, "what's he going to do with a new broom? Sweep?"

"Hey now!" Hermione scolded, "that is just rude."

"Yes it was, now apologise to your Uncle," Ginny said sternly, Lily huffed before crossing her arms.

"I'm sorry Uncle Ron that dad prefers you to any of his own children," she said. Ron looked up at her.

"I'm sorry did you say something?" he looked around at the people crowding him and smiled, "I got a broom! These are the best presents ever."

"Well good for you that we have more," Arthur said reaching forward and clapping his son on the back.

"Harry has got me more presents?" Ron asked looking at Harry hopefully.

"Well there is one more," Harry said turning to smile at his wife before looking around at the family members crowding around.

"It's from all of us," Arthur told him.

Ron could barely stay still from all of the excitement.

"We have arranged for the entire family to go on a holiday together!"

The family all cheered and Amelia looked around at them, James seemed to stiffen slightly behind her.

"Really? When are we going?" Ron asked looking around at them all. The pile of presents had now been ignored by them all.

"It starts in the morning," Charlie cried, barely able to contain his own excitement, "We're going away for two weeks! The first time in years the entire family has managed to go. on holiday together."

Amelia looked around at the family stunned before she realised what this meant. The entire family meant her; she slowly turned around to face James as the family all celebrated with Ron. James was looking into the sky as though there were something very interesting in it edging away from her slightly.

She slowly walked forward, feeling the anger rise in her.

"James Sirius Potter," she growled angrily, James was still trying not to look her in the eye.

Before she could reach him she was pulled into a hug by Lily who was hugging her tightly.

"This is going to be so fun!" she cried as Amelia glared at James who had finally looked at her with an apologetic look on his face. She mouthed the words 'you are so dead!' at him.


	6. Chapter 6

They barely made it through James' bedroom door later that night, before Amelia tried to strangle him; James blocked her by holding onto her arms. She let out a growl before pushing him away from her.

"I am going to kill you!" she screamed taking off her coat and throwing it at him, James caught it and threw it onto the bed.

"I am so so sorry," he said backing away from her slightly, scared of the look on Amelia's face.

"No you're not! How long did you know about this holiday James!" she seethed her eyes blazing with anger.

"From the beginning," he said guiltily, Amelia let out another growl as she moved forward, James flinched slightly scared of her hurting him, but she was just reaching for her coat.

"You are such a jerk! I have no idea why I even agreed to come to this party. It was such a stupid idea," she grabbed for her bag and began reaching for her things to put into it. James looked slightly alarmed and rushed forwards to stop her.

"What are you doing?" he asked as he grabbed her stuff and pulled it out of the bag, this made Amelia angrier as she picked up her hairbrush threateningly, James backed off slightly.

"Unless you want me to shove this so far up a very delicate place and make it so only a Healer will be about to remove it, I suggest that you get away from me!"

James gulped slightly as he looked down at the hairbrush, "but...but you can't leave," he told her stammering slightly.

"And give me one good reason why not!" Amelia snapped waving the brush in front of his face, James's eyes followed it.

"Because...because...Dad has put protective spells around the house to stop people apparating out or in and he has done the same for the holiday home so there's no way of you using apparation,"

Amelia stopped waving her hairbrush around, "I could walk to the field we apparated into."

"It's midnight you can't go out in the dark; mum and dad will get suspicious."

"Fine I'll go in the morning," Amelia told him .

"But everyone will see you,"

Amelia stopped and glared at him he chanced a smile.

"At least you get a free holiday out of it," he joked trying to lighten the mood.

Amelia let out a growl like scream at him before turning around and dropping her hairbrush, she picked up her pyjamas from the bed and shoved passed him to the bathroom so she could get changed.

"Amelia. I am truly sorry," James said as he decided to get ready for bed in the bedroom. After he had changed he took a cover and pillow off of the bed and placed them on the floor he got under the quilt making his makeshift bed on the floor. There was no reply from the bathroom.

"Amelia," James called again. Amelia walked out of the bathroom and over to her bag, placing her stuff on top of it before grabbing James's quilt off of him and laying on top of the quilt on the double bed she was sleeping in and using James's quilt as a cover.

"I know you're angry and I'm sorry but can I please have my cover back?" he pleaded with her. She refused to say anything as she kept the cover over her.

"Look it can't be all bad. And I did pack you extra clothes so you would have something else to wear on the holiday."

She got up and looked over at James who thought she was going to thank him for being so kind; instead she glared at him again and reached over grabbing the pillow from underneath his head, causing his head to thump to the floor. She placed it under her own head and waved her wand which was on the side so the light went off.

James lay on the floor and sighed, "I guess I'll have to use my clothes to keep me war,." James stated, Amelia lay in quiet as James tried to get comfortable on the floor, a t shirt covering his torso acting as his quilt.

The next morning James woke up in pain, stretching slightly causing his back to click he let out a small wail of pain. His hand darting to his back he rubbed it slightly. Why did he agree to sleep on the floor?

He moved slowly into a sitting position and looked around him, rubbing his eyes and attempting to flatten his hair, his eyes searched the room and he saw that the room was empty. James's eyes widened slightly as he looked around the room for a sign of Amelia, he noticed that her bags were missing and there was no evidence of Amelia having been in his room at all. He got quickly off of the floor, biting down a yelp of pain as he felt his back ache.

He threw on a pair of trousers and a t-shirt and ran down the stairs as quickly as he could, his eyes were darting around as he went from room to room, finally ending up in the kitchen, pushing the door open.

Four sets of eyes rounded on him each looking at him as if he was crazy, he was sure that he looked it. His eyes found Amelia sitting next to Lily and sipping at her drink, she moved her glance away from him. James felt relief flood through him.

"There you are!" he said loudly running a hand through his hair, not realising what he had said until it was too late. His parents and Lily looked at him in confusion.

"Calm down James, she only came down for breakfast," Harry said with a laugh at his son, "you can spend a few moments away from each other."

James nodded as he walked over to where they were sitting and sank into the seat next to Amelia, he turned to look at her but she was careful to avoid eye contact.

"Albus!" Ginny scolded loudly causing everyone to once again look up at the door to see Albus strolling in his hair a mess, yawning loudly and in just his Chudley Cannon underpants. He scratched at his leg as he sat down in the empty seat next to his father, ignoring the looks from them all.

"What's for breakfast?" he asked yawning again as this time he scratched his head.

"Albus you get upstairs right now and you put some more clothes on!" Ginny snapped her teeth gritted angrily, "we have guests."

"It's only Amelia," Albus said pointing at Amelia who was starting to feel uncomfortable, "it's not like she hasn't seen it all before."

Amelia felt her mouth fall open in shock at his words. Harry dropped his fork and Ginny turned red, James and Lily were gawking at their brother. He frowned at them.

"Well she's obviously seen James naked! And that's just the same as seeing me naked," Albus told them. Amelia felt embarrassment flood through her as she hid her face, James shifted uncomfortably, Harry looked like he wanted to escape the room, Lily was giggling and Ginny looked like she was going to explode in anger. She stood up and grabbed Albus by the arm and pulling him up, escorting him from the room, Albus began yelling as he was dragged out about how, "if you've seen one naked person you've basically seen all naked people! They're all the same."

As soon as Ginny and Albus left the room, the others sat in uncomfortable silence. All not looking at each other and picking at their food.

"Well I suppose we should all go and get ready to leave," Harry said with a small embarrassed cough, he stood up and carried his empty cup and plate to the sink, placing them in and leaving the room.

"I suppose I should go get ready too," Lily stated as she too stood up.

"We need to talk," James said turning to look at Amelia, who in turn looked up at Lily.

"Would you like some help?" she asked ignoring James.

Lily nodded and both of them left the room and left James at the table.

He sighed before grabbing for a slice of toast on the table. This was going to be a long holiday.

"Do you need any help?" James asked Amelia ten minutes later, he had finished his toast and had taken a slow walk up the stairs and to his room.

She didn't even turn around and acknowledge him as she continued going around the room to see if she had left anything laying around. James continued watching her; he had shut the door behind him so no one could hear them.

"So you're not even going to talk to me now," James stated moving forward to reach her. Amelia moved quickly out of the way and refused to look at him as she darted into the bathroom to pick up her toiletries, James followed her blocking the door and stopping her from getting past him.

She sighed as she stopped in her tracks and stood staring at the floor, the bag in her hand as the other one clenched and unclenched beside her. She kept her gaze on the floor.

"Amelia please talk to me, I said I was sorry," James pleaded. Amelia let out another sigh as she stopped clenching her hand and ran it over her face wearily before dropping it back down to her side. Still she refused to say anything to him.

"Ignoring me isn't going to achieve anything," He told her softly as he walked forwards taking her hand gently; she closed her eyes tightly as though this action pained her before wrenching it away from him.

"I think you would rather I ignore you then what I want to do to you," Amelia warned him as she pushed passed him, shoving him roughly aside. He turned to look at her.

"And whys that?" he asked her as she stuffed her toiletry bag into her other bag, finally zipping it up.

"Because I really want to hurt you and so far I have been able to resist doing that," Amelia growled as she picked up her bag and walked out of the room, leaving James behind staring at her. He shook his head slowly and sadly before he decided to get his things ready, He bent down letting out an 'ouch' as his hand flew to his back and rubbing it slightly.

"Bad back?" came Albus's voice from the doorway. James stood back up stretching his back as he continued rubbing it

"Yeah I didn't sleep well last night," James said, causing Albus to start smirking.

"I bet you didn't,"

James shook his head, "do you have to be that weird? And no it's not what you think me and Amelia didn't do anything like that."

Albus rose an eyebrow at him, "Yes I am always weird; I blame that on our cousin Hugo. So I take it you just had a solo night."

James glared at him and shook his head as he bent down again, this time managing to grab his bag.

"Hey there's no shame in it!" Albus said holding his hands up in defence, "But you could have at least not had the wife in the room at the same time. That's a bit demeaning."

"You're a jerk," James told him, "you don't know what you're talking about," he grabbed for his clothes laying in a heap on the floor.

"Although if it was me, and I had a wife that looked like yours. I would have done the same thing."

"Get out!" James yelled at Albus, picking up a pillow and throwing it at Albus, who caught it quickly, "get out now!"

Albus grinned as he looked down at the pillow, "Is this Amelia's one?"

James stood up quickly, ignoring the pain in his back as he rushed over to his brother and wrenched the pillow out of his grasp and throwing it back onto the bed. "You are sick," he told him before shoving him out of the room and slamming it shut. Albus's laugh could be heard from the other side.

"Don't worry I'm all packed, I'll just go and hang around with Amelia. I think she's sitting downstairs alone."

James ignored him and carried on his packing, he needed to pack quickly and get downstairs. He didn't trust his brother around Amelia, who knew what kind of things he would try and get up to.

Picking up his packed bag he raced from the room and down the stairs throwing his bag in front of the door and going into the front room just in time to see Amelia slap Albus across the face.

James stopped in shock, as Lily laughed, Amelia glared at Albus and Albus held his face.

"You ever say that to me again and I will do more than slap you," Amelia growled threateningly pointing at Albus who was still rubbing his cheek. He shot her a smirk and opened his mouth to say something else.

"If you say anything else towards my wife, in what I can only assume was a sexual way, I will make you live to regret it," James warned, Amelia looked up at him quickly and Albus reluctantly turned around to face his big brother.

"Oh come on James I was only kidding," Albus said with a laugh, James had to repress a grin at seeing Amelia's hand print on Albus's face. "Amelia knows that don't you?" Albus turned around and went to reach forward to grab hold of Amelia's hand, she quickly moved out of the way and edged away from him, going over to James and hugging onto him. James tried to hide his shock at Amelia's sudden change in attitude as he wrapped his arm around her protectively.

"Do you want me to tell Mum?" James warned, knowing the only person Albus was truly scared of was his mother, Albus blanched.

"I'm sorry Amelia, I shouldn't have said that," Albus said walking out of the room and out of the way, Lily followed giggling at Albus and mocking him as she too went out of the room.

When Amelia was sure that they were out of earshot she moved away from James, who looked at her in question.

"We need to make this look real don't we?" She told him before sitting down on the sofa Lily had previously occupied. James walked over to sit next to her; he noticed that she didn't move away as soon as he sat down.

"Yeah, but what happened in the past ten minutes to change your mind?"

"I haven't changed my mind," Amelia snapped, finally moving away from him, "I still want to hurt you. But I realised that I had two choices, spend the two weeks with you or spend it with Albus coming onto me and you seemed the lesser of two evils. Besides when you're around he doesn't try anything. This doesn't mean I forgive you for anything and I still hate you."

James nodded slowly, "I understand that," he told her fiddling with the arm of the sofa, picking at a thread that had come apart from the seam.

They sat in awkward silence together until Ginny came into the room and told them that they would be leaving very shortly. They both stood up and walked out of the room and over to the front door. They looked up to see Harry was magically levitating the bags down the stairs in front of him. They landed on the floor in front of the door and Harry stood beside them. He looked at them a small smile filling his face as they all stood in silence waiting for the others to finish getting ready. They all came down a few moments later bags levitating in front of them.

Ginny looked them all over before she deemed them all ready to leave, harry opened the door and they all scrambled outside, wrapping their cloaks around themselves as they all moved the bags down the path. Harry stood on the side of the road and stuck his wand arm out, calling for the knight bus. A strange but quick way to get to their destination, as Harry didn't allow for the floo network to be connected to his holiday home. They all bundled into the three story high bus pulling their bags after them and settling down before the bus shot off. Being thrown around was not Amelia's ideal way to travel and she kept being thrown into James who didn't seem to mind. It wouldn't be long before she got off of the bus and she was glad as she was starting to feel motion sickness fill through her.


	7. Chapter 7

Amelia practically ran off of the bus as soon as it stopped at their destination, clutching her stomach and hoping to Merlin that she didn't throw up and make a fool of herself in front of the Potter family. She pushed her hair out of her face as she took deep breaths.

Ginny rushed over to her in concern, patting her caringly on the back with one hand and checking the temperature of her forehead with the other.

"Are you alright dear?" she cooed, sounding like her mother Molly. "you feel a bit hot, would you like to go straight in and lay down?"

Amelia looked up at the others and saw that all of the bags had been taken off, the knight bus quickly zoomed off in the blink of an eye, the bags were levitating in front of them as they walked towards the house, all of them looking over at Amelia in concern, she shook her head as she told Ginny that she would be fine but thanks anyway.

James walked forward and over to Amelia, his bag being hovered in by Albus so he could come over and check on her.

"Did you need help getting in?" he asked her

"No I'm fine walking" Amelia told him as she began to take a walk but James quickly stopped her

"No you're not I'll take you" and before she could stop him he had picked her up and was carrying her towards the house bridal style. She could practically hear Ginny thinking 'aww' as she watched them walk off.

"You can put me down" Amelia snapped trying to push herself out of James's arms but he was refusing to let her go.

"You could stop moaning and enjoy the ride" James told her as they walked in behind Albus and Lily and in front of Harry who was waiting for Ginny to catch up with them

"And you could stop touching me" Amelia snapped, James dropped his arms gently so she could stand up as they entered the house. Amelia dusted herself off as she moved away from him. She still felt sick but was starting to feel better not that James carrying her helped her in slightest.

"shall I show you to our room" James asked Amelia moving out of the way so his mother and father could enter the house and walk off to the living room, their bags placing themselves by the stairs, so they could take them up later.

"I would rather it just be your room and I have one to myself" Amelia snapped at him.

Albus let out a laugh "trouble in paradise" he taunted them, Amelia turned to glare at him "what's James done now?" Albus added

"Just being a jerk" Amelia growled folding her arms angrily as she turned back to James

"Like normal then" Albus laughed

"You're not funny" James told him as he walked up the stairs, carrying their bags, Amelia following him.

They walked up the stairs before going along the corridor, after a few door James opened one and they walked in. James set their bags down on the floor and Amelia was looking around the room.

"Oh no! Not again!" she told him turning to face him her arms crossing themselves again

"What?" James asked looked at her, she pointed accusingly at the double bed her eyebrow raised

"We are not sharing a bed again!" she snapped at him "you've got to sort this out! We need to change rooms"

"But we can't" James told her wearily "the other rooms have all been allocated to the rest of the family and we've been given this one...can't you just make do with the fact that we'll have to share a bed..." Amelia had a dark glare set on her face as she looked at him "or I'll just sleep on the floor again"

"Sounds like a plan" she told him before she walked over to her bag and beginning to pull her contents out of it.

James let out a sigh as he walked over to the door.

"I'm just going to see Albus will you be..." he began

"I'll be fine!" Amelia told him in an annoyed tone. James rolled his eyes before he exited the room and closed the door behind him. He walked down the landing and stopped in front of Albus's room, walking straight in seen as though Albus had left the door open.

"Still arguing?" Albus asked James as soon as he saw James's face

"How did you guess?" James stated as he ran his hands through his hair.

"now there is one way for you to win this argument that you seem to have going on between you" Albus stated looking at his brother a smile creeping on his face as the plan began unfolding in his head "and that is to make you utterly irresistible to her, that way she will stop thinking about the argument and just want to get straight to the making up part"

James stared at him as though he was crazy

"Now I know what you're thinking 'how can she possibly find me irresistible when the hunk of a man called Albus is in the room?' and I'm here to tell you that there is a way"

"I never once thought that" James frowned, worrying for his younger brother's mind and wondering if him dropping him as a baby had affected him, even thought his dad had promised him that it hadn't

Albus let his eyes roam over his brother taking in every detail, James felt like he should cover himself up "hey! Don't look at me like that! It's making me uncomfortable" James cried shoving his brother who shook his head at James.

"Please! You're not that good looking!" Albus laughed and waved his hand as thought dismissing James's statement "No I'm trying to think how to get Amelia to find you attractive...although I can't think of anything. Your hair is sticking up at a funny angle; you have some sort of butterbeer belly going on..."

"and god knows what on earth is going on with your clothes" came Lily's voice as she pushed her way into the room Albus was going to sleep in and sat down on the bed.

"Well no one asked you two did they?" James said getting annoyed with his siblings as he flattened his hair and looked down at his clothes not seeing anything wrong with them. And as if he had a butterbeer belly! If anything Albus was getting one.

"Well there has to be something she likes about you!" Albus cried throwing his hands up as he couldn't find anything.

James suddenly let out a yell as he began clicking his fingers at them and jumping up and down slightly, causing them to recoil slightly in fear and confusion "I have something!"

Albus raised an eyebrow at him in question and Lily looked a bit bored.

"My arms!" James said and with those words he threw off his jacket with some difficulty as his hand got stuck and threw it onto the floor before he began flexing. "She can't resist these bad boys!"

Albus and Lily looked at each other before bursting out in laughter, Albus was slapping his legs as the laughter caused his eyes to water and Lily had fallen backwards on the bed clutching her stomach as though the laughter was hurting her. James stopped flexing at them and felt hurt at their laughter.

"I'm telling you she loves it!" James cried in defence

"oh yeah we believe you" Lily said through gasps of breath as she continued laughing at him, Albus had sunken to his knees and was bent over on all fours as he too carried on laughing hysterically.

"Fine. Fine! Don't believe me but you'll see later on!" James snapped grabbing his jacket before he stormed from the room, leaving his two siblings laughing behind him.

He was mumbling to himself as he rushed down the landing not paying attention to anything before he ran straight into someone, knocking them both slightly so they stumbled slightly, they regained their balance before looking at each other mumbling apologies, which were cut off as soon as they saw who it was.

"Rose!" James shouted pulling his cousin into a hug as she laughed "how are you?"

"I'm good thanks how about you?" she replied as James pulled away

"I'm very good" he beamed

"Well Hugo, mum and dad are downstairs if you want to see them?"

"Oh great I'll go get Amelia then" James said as he began walking to the room they were staying in

"She's already down there James" Rose told him as she walked down the hall and to the room next to Albus's.

James hurried to his room and threw his jacket in there before racing down the stairs and to the front room where everyone else was situated.

"James!" called Ron, pulling his nephew into a one armed hugged and ruffling his hair

"Ronald leave the poor boy alone" Hermione said pulling James towards her and hugging him tightly giving him a kiss on the cheek and then holding him at arm's length. "You better be looking after lovely Amelia here, I heard she was sick earlier"

"I'm fine Mrs Weasley" Amelia stated from her seat next to Harry, who was looking a little uncomfortable.

"Is there something you're not telling us" Hermione said letting go of James and winking at Ginny who was smiling at them. James looked a little confused

"You're not going to be having any children soon are you?" she asked. James and Amelia couldn't answer quickly enough

"Oh Merlin no!" Amelia said as James said "err no not anytime soon"

Amelia had to stop herself from glaring at James her eyes quickly looked down and saw that he was wearing a short sleeved t shirt "I can assure you that it's just motion...sickness..." she found herself staring at James's arms and had to shake her head to stop herself from looking. She looked over to Hermione and Ginny who were still smiling at her

"I just don't use the knight bus that often" she told them

"Well give it a few months and you'll be changing your mind" Hermione said with a laugh and Amelia couldn't be sure if she was joking or not, she had to bite back her retort of 'hell no!'

"So where's ..." James started he was about to ask where Hugo was until he looked around and noticed his father looking uncomfortable. Hugo was sat next to him and sitting so close to Harry if her was any closer he would be sitting on his lap. Hugo was a big fan of his uncle Harry and seemed to worship him, much to the annoyance of Ron who thought that he should be his son's hero.

"How are you Hugo?" James asked his cousin, feeling Amelia's eyes on his arms he decided to flex them slightly; peering out of the corner of his eye he saw that Amelia's face went a little red.

"I'm fine" Hugo stated slowly as he turned to look at Harry "how are you Uncle Harry?"

Harry nodded at Hugo and smiled a small smile before turning to look at his wife and pleading with his eyes for her to save him.

"I think Lily is upstairs" Ginny told Hugo, who looked away from Harry and rose from his seat. Off in search of his best friend and favourite cousin.

"Well Hugo seems a bit ..." Harry began coughing uncomfortably

"Strange? Weird?" Ron stated looking in the direction his son had just gone Hermione scolded her husband

"Don't say that about Hugo" she stated

"But he is Hermione!" Ron said turning to face his wife "you can't tell me that he's not!"

"He's different Ronald, not strange" Hermione said taking the seat next to Harry.

"I was going to say Hugo seems a bit tired" Harry said but he was ignored by his two best friends who were still bickering about their son. Amelia stood up and walked over to James

"I know what you're doing!" Amelia told James quietly as got close enough so only he could hear her.

"And what's that?" James asked moving his arms slightly causing Amelia's gaze to shoot down at them quickly

"I know why you've got your arms out!"

"I just got too warm" James stated at her "is it illegal for me to take off my jacket if I become too warm?"

Amelia looked back up at him and glared "I know exactly why you're doing this and I'm telling you now that it's not going to work"

"Oh really?" James asked before he pretended to stretch his arms going out and one wrapped itself around Amelia's shoulders. She shivered slightly and looked down at them before coming to her senses and shoving them off of her.

"You are playing a very dirty game and I am not going to give in" she told him moving away so she wasn't within 'arm length'

"Oh really?" James enquire an eyebrow raised challengingly as he continued 'flexing' Amelia was trying her hardest to not stare at him.

"James?" came his father's concerned voice "what are you doing with your arms?"

This was all Amelia needed to break herself from staring at James's arms and to her horror her daydream about having them wrapped around her. In horror she stared up at James who was smirking.

"Just moving them" James told his father who was still looking at his eldest son in concern and hoping that he wasn't going to turn out like Hugo.

"Two can play at this game!" Amelia warned James quietly pointing at finger at him threatening "you just wait and see who wins this" she turned away from him and exited the room but not before glancing at James's arms before she turned around.

James sniggered before mumbling to himself about how she will never be able to get him like that.

"Go away Albus!" Rose groaned, a few hours later, pushing her hair away from her face as she continued writing her letter, trying to ignore Albus who was sitting extremely close to her and poking at her side, making her squirm away from him.

"Make me Rose" he told her as he continued poking at her, she gripped her quill tighter telling herself not to give in to him as it was exactly what he wanted. She continued writing her letter trying her best to ignore Albus but it was difficult as he began to lean over her letter reading what was written on it.

"Dear Hank,

I think you are the best fiancé in the world and I will love you forever and ever and ever! And Albus is the best cousin!"

Rose shoved Albus away angrily as she grabbed the letter and shoved it into her pocket, leaving the quill and ink on the side.

"You jerk! It doesn't even say that!" she told him angrily

"Oh come on Rose mine was entertaining, yours was just boring" Albus said straightening himself up and looking at his cousin who was starting to go red with her anger at him.

"Yours sounds like it was written by a five year old, which seems just right for something that you came up with" she snapped moving away from Albus and out of the room.

"Rose! Oh come on now that was just harsh. Don't go! DON'T...Oh Merlin!" Albus said as Rose continued walking away from him and out to the kitchen. He threw his hands up in the air, now that Rose was gone who was he going to annoy now? He looked around the hallway and saw that his mother was coming down the stairs towards him. He backed up slightly trying to think of an escape before his mum made him do something to help out with the dinner that would soon be ready. He almost made it back to the room he had been in before Ginny had spotted him.

"Albus! There you are!"

Albus had to restrain his groan as he beamed at his mum who had by now walked over to him.

"I thought you were going to get ready" she told him looking him over and frowning

"What's wrong with what I'm wearing?" Albus asked defensively as he looked down at his t shirt and jeans ensemble, sure it might be creased and there was a very questionable stain on the shirt which he wasn't sure if it was cheese or custard. He sniffed at it causing his mother to shriek at him.

She pushed him towards the stairs urging him to go up them and change into something decent. He flounced up them moaning with each step he took as though he was a three year old being told off.

"But mum! It was fine to wear this morning!" he moaned turning to face Ginny who had her hands on his hips and was frowning at him sternly.

"You change this instant! Don't make me get your father!"

"Oh yeah as if **he** can do anything!" Albus muttered, he glanced at his mother who started up the stairs angrily causing Albus to sprint up the rest of them and into his room closing the door behind him hurriedly and locking it.

He caught his breath as he walked over to his suitcase and opened it, trying to find something in the masses amounts of creased and tangled clothes, not knowing what in Merlin's pants was up with his mum. She seemed pretty uptight recently.

James looked down at his watch before looking over at the door, scared that Amelia had come to her senses and had run off whilst everyone else had got ready for dinner. Ron let out a cough as he moved his knife and fork around.

"So...what's taking Amelia so long?" he asked the table, everyone had taken their seats a few minutes ago and they were waiting for Amelia to enter the room

"She isn't taking so long, we've only just sat down" Hermione said as she straightened out her napkin on her lap.

"Yeah well I'm hungry" Ron stated causing a smile to appear on Harry's face at his friends bickering. Ginny turned to look at James.

"did you want to go see if Amelia is ok?" she asked him, James nodded as he stood up but didn't take any steps as the door opened and Amelia came in an apologetic look on her face as she walked over to the table.

"I'm sorry I'm late" she told them, everyone stared at her in shock, including James who tried everything he could to stop his eyes from wandering down to her dress.

She gave James a small smile as she walked over to the seat next to his and sat down. Everyone around the table had fallen silent and were staring at Amelia. Albus had his mouth open as he looked at Amelia shamelessly; Lily had to nudge him in the side to stop him staring.

"That is a very... nice dress Amelia" Ginny said coughing slightly and bring the adults out of their shock as they began to move around their cutlery and plates to distract themselves. Amelia looked down at her short, very tight, red dress, knowing that this was James's favourite dress of hers for obvious reasons, and the look on James's face made it obvious that she had gotten him back for earlier.

"What this old thing?" Amelia said waving her hand dismissively as she settled in her seat more comfortably "I haven't worn it in a while so thought I would wear it tonight"

"well you look hot" Albus stated smirking seductively at Amelia, James was brought out of his thoughts and sat down quickly moving his chair closer to Amelia and taking his jumper off and passing it to Amelia attempting to cover her up.

"James stop it, I'm fine"

"Are you sure? Sure you're not cold?" he asked still trying to get her to wear the jumper but she took it away from him and dropped it to the floor.

James looked up and glared at his brother as the adults starting to dish out the dinner, warning him with a look to keep his eyes off of his wife.

"So Hugo" Amelia said as she began eating her dinner, she took a mouthful before leaning across James for the salt, causing his breath to hitch in his throat, she continued her comment "how is your band going? The last time I saw you, I think you were saying something about going on tour with them..."

Hugo looked up from his dinner at her, not at all fazed by her dress or lack of. James was pleased by this fact although he himself was struggling to keep his eyes and his thoughts from her.

"You mean the heavy metal band 'wrock on'? yeah that kind of fell through, even after that excellent gig we had back in Rocktober" Hugo told her sadly as he stabbed at his beef irritably, Ron and Hermione shot looks at each other, knowing that the band was a touchy subject for Hugo.

"There's no such thing as Rocktober! It's October" Albus told him, trying to not stare at Amelia. Ginny tutted at her son's behaviour but other than that no one had paid much attention to him.

"Oh no why did that happen? You seemed so into playing what happened?" Amelia asked cutting up her roast potato and eating some.

"They kicked me out of the band" he told her moodily continuing to stab his beef with his fork "apparently I 'ruined the music with my outrageous solos and thought I was bigger than the band because I was the best player in the wizarding world'"

"Oh..." Amelia said nodding slowly before she tried to remember what instrument it was Hugo played "what was it you played again?"

"The triangle!" Hugo said proudly causing Albus to choke on his drink as he took a drink. Ginny patted him on the back as she too tried to contain her laugh.

"The triangle?" Amelia said nodding and trying her hardest to keep a straight face "I don't think I've ever heard a triangle solo"

"Would you like to?" Hugo asked his mood suddenly changing as he put his knife and fork down quickly "I have it with me I can play you a solo now!"

"That won't be necessary" Ron said holding a hand out to stop Hugo, "not whilst we're eating dinner"

Hugo nodded at his father as he sat down and continued eating his food, his annoyed mood returning. Lily patted him sympathetically on the arm.

They all shot looks at each other before they all began making small talk at each other.

"You know you're not playing fair" James said in Amelia's ear, Amelia turned her head to look at him.

"I have no idea what you are talking about" she said simply as she carried on with her dinner

"You know exactly what I'm talking about and you are pure evil" he told her as he too carried on eating.

"Excuse me? Are you calling me evil? You are the one with your arms out all morning flexing them at me when you know they're the one thing I can't resist" she said quietly pointing her fork at him.

"And what about you? Having your...your..." he pointed at her dress "you know you drive me crazy when you have that dress on"

Amelia didn't reply to him, merely smirking at him as she got drawn into a conversation with Harry. Knowing that she got James back and was winning whatever it was that made James start all of this.


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: I would like to apologise for how long it took for me to put the other chapter and this one up, I hope to not be that long again. Thanks to everyone that's reading and reviewing :D

Disclaimer: I own nothing apart from what you don't recognise, also a small part of the dinner scene is based off an idea from How I met your mother.

I would also like to apologise for posting the old chapter twice, I'm such a loser haha Thank you for pointing it out lauren. :D

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Being startled awake was not how Amelia wanted to be woken up but having someone jump into your bed and hug onto you was enough to make anyone startled, especially if the one hugging up to you was your soon to be ex husband. So Amelia done the only things that made sense at the time, she kicked her legs back violently and let out a loud scream.

She heard James let out a cry of pain before he pressed his hand over her mouth to stop her from screaming and waking up the entire household. She began thrashing out at him and trying to get him to let go of her. He managed to get his other arm around her and holding her tightly to stop her from hurting him again.

"Stop it! Stop it!" James hissed urgently as she continued to struggle against him, His leg still hurting painfully from where she kicked him, "You need to stop screaming."

He dropped his hand from her mouth and she continued struggling against him, "you get your hands off of me," she snapped pushing his arm away from her and scooting away from him.

"Why on Earth did you think it would be a good idea to jump into bed with me and start man handling me!" she growled turning to face him and poking him painfully in the shoulder.

"Because my family are arriving and one of them has knocked on the door to come in, and believe it or not we're suppose to be married and I think me sleeping on the floor would make them suspicious," he told her in a whisper.

Amelia listened out for a few moments for a sound outside the door but she heard nothing, "and where are these make believe family members of yours? Because I don't hear anyone."

"They're out there believe me," he said scooting closer to her and she recoiled in horror as his body touched her.

"That better have been your hand," she said with a shocked growl as she moved away again, nearly at the edge of the bed. James's face went a little red and he fell quiet, but this was all the confirmation she needed.

"Oh Godric you are disgusting!" her face filling with repulsion.

"Well it's the morning I can't control it!" he told her honestly going to move towards her but she put her hand on his shoulder to stop him.

"Don't I know about how you can't control it," she snapped angrily, James was about to retaliate but before he could, the door was thrown open and a loud screech was heard from the door. Amelia looked up in time to see a tall, blonde haired woman running towards her and before she could do anything to protect herself from harm the person ran at the bed and jumped on it, throwing themselves in the middle of James and Amelia and engulfing Amelia in a hug. James let out a low sigh as he sat up straight.

"Hello Lucy!" he said looking over at his cousin who had sat up on the bed and was looking at Amelia whose mood seemed to have changed drastically. Both she and Lucy got off of the bed, standing on the side so they could hug each other properly.

"I've missed you," Amelia squealed as her and Lucy stopped hugging each other. "I was looking forward to seeing you at Uncle Ron's birthday party."

"Yeah something that Uncle Ron hasn't seemed to forgive me for yet. But I think my present will sway him," Lucy said with a wink and they laughed again.

"Well give me about ten minutes while I get washed and dressed and then we can talk more. I'm so excited," Amelia squealed again as Lucy nodded and turned to leave the room.

"Oh and hi by the way James," Lucy said as she left. James waved at her and got out of the bed as Amelia rushed passed him to grab her stuff and running out of the room to use the bathroom outside.

James stood up as he grabbed his own clothes and got ready, knowing that he wouldn't be seeing much of Amelia now that Lucy was around.

"It's getting very crowded in here," Fred Weasley mumbled, scratching at his darker skin on the back of his hand before poking his sister Roxanne in the ribs, she squirmed before turning around and slapping him on the arm.

"Touch me again dork and you will regret it," she threatened him, glaring at him the same way his mum does.

Fred felt a goofy grin fill his face as he reached forward and grabbed his sister in a hug and held her tightly, "you know you love me!" he told her as she shrieked again and tried to shove him off of her, "you love your big brother admit it."

"Mum!" Roxanne cried, her mother came into view from behind a few of the adults that were making a crowd in the kitchen, Fred and Roxanne had taken a place at the table sitting opposite Lucy and Amelia who were talking animatedly. Angelina Weasley walked forward threateningly and Fred was quick to let go of his sister and stand up, rushing to hide behind his dad who was talking to Percy. Angelina frowned angrily before walking back over to talk to Hermione.

James sighed as he looked around at the mass crowd that had taken over the kitchen. Since he had woken up his family members had been arriving within minutes of each other, no sign of Uncle Bill's lot yet, and everyone had chosen to congregate in the kitchen, although some people had gone out the back door and were standing in the garden.

It was still quite cramped in here and James had to edge around people to try and find somewhere to stand where he wasn't going to get accidentally trodden on, or elbowed. He gave up eventually and found himself standing in the middle of Ron, Hermione, Audrey and Angelina's conversation about Ron's party.

Feeling boredom overwhelm him he wondered just long he would be stuck here, but it wasn't going to be long, as he heard the door open and voices float down the kitchen. James looked around the room eagerly seeing the faces of all his cousins suddenly light up and everyone stood up to face the door.

The footsteps echoed down the hall and into the room came Teddy Lupin, Victoire Lupin, Dominique Weasley, Louis Weasley and Fleur Weasley. The adults all said 'hello' in unison and the ones by the door ushered them into the cramped spaces, but the younger ones didn't care about that, they were searching for someone else, and they were all edging as best as they could towards the door as a shuffling noise was heard coming towards them.

"UNCLE BILL!" came the cries of nine people as they rushed forward pushing all of the adults out of the way, not caring that they had pushed people into counters and onto the floor. Treading over Percy in their haste to be the first one to hug Bill, something that had been going on longer then everyone could remember.

James reached Bill first as the look of utmost horror filled Bills face as he realised that with carrying all of the luggage in he was left defenceless to their attacks. James hugged Bill but soon the weight of eight people piling into them was too much and they all fell to the floor in a heap, each one of them trying their best to hug Bill. Some people got an arm, some people got a leg, James had the torso and Fred was hugging Bills head.

"SOMEONE HELP ME!" Bill cried from the floor .

"Oh come on now!" Molly scolded to her grandchildren as she walked forward and tried to pry Fred away from Bills head but to no avail, no one would be the first to let go of Bill, "You are adults!"

"What's your point Grandma?" came Albus's reply as he clutched onto Bills foot.

"Mum help!" Bill said, not even having the strength to struggle away from the weight of all of his nieces and nephews.

"Fred let go of Bills head," George said trying his best not to laugh like his dad, Ron and Harry who were laughing heartily in the corner not even trying to help, glares being shot at them from their wives.

"No! I'm not letting go first," Fred told them all, still clutching hold of Bill's head. The rest of them mumbled about how they weren't letting go first.

"Well how about you all let go at the same time?" came Victoires voice from the side. The others all glanced at each other all agreeing that this was the best solution. "After the count of three you can all let go."

They all nodded as they readied themselves to stand up as Victoire counted down, "3...2...1..."

They all let go at the same time and dusted themselves down walking away from Bill and leaving him on the floor. Walking back over to where they had previously been walking passed the adults who were shaking their heads at their children and Percy dusting himself down after being trampled on.

James decided to walk over to where Amelia had stayed sitting during the whole thing and was shaking her head at him.

"You are an idiot," she told him, James flashed her a smile as he took Lucy's old seat, she was still making her way over to them. "Why did you do that?"

James shrugged, "been a family tradition."

Amelia seriously doubted it had become a family tradition but part of her knew that it was going to become one.

"If it's a family tradition how comes you didn't do it at the party?" Amelia asked eyebrow raised.

"Well the simple fact that Lucy wasn't there," James said as though it was obvious, "we can only do it if we're all there."

"That's just ridiculous," Amelia told him with a shake of her head.

"Not really it wouldn't be fair if everyone wasn't involved."

"What about Victoire, Dom and Louis?" Amelia queried as Lucy came over and saw that James was sitting in her seat so decided to sit on him.

James shuffled around so he could see Amelia better, "It's their dad so it doesn't matter to them about hugging him, they hug him all the time."

"I'm so jealous of them," Lucy said looking over at Bill who was talking to Ron and Harry, Fleur rubbing his back sympathetically.

"Can everybody please be quiet," came the stern voice from Hermione causing everyone to become quiet and look over at her. "I have got the names of who's having what room on this list."

There was excited mumbles from the younger ones, Amelia turned to James who still had Lucy on his lap.

"You need a list?" she enquired dubiously.

"Of course" Lucy replied for James, "with a family this big, without some sort of order then we'll just get out of control and crazy. This is why we need organised people like Aunt Hermione and Uncle Percy to keep us all in check."

Amelia's eyebrows rose as she looked to James who nodded in confirmation, "believe me, you haven't holidayed with the entire Weasley plus Potter clan, we can be a little unruly so I'll give you some advice. Never let Albus catch you alone. Never trust anything Fred gives you. and if Hugo won't stop looking at you or won't leave you alone distract him with dad. Dad is his idol!"

"Oh and never touch Dom's leather jacket if you like having your fingers the way they are. And be careful if Rose and Dom are together, they like to play pranks on everyone,"

"Rose? Seriously?" Amelia asked turning to look at the red haired girl hugging her father and smiling.

"She may not look like it but she's one of the worst ones,"

"When you are all finished talking I'll continue," Hermione snapped causing them to all stop their conversations and look back at her. She looked down at her list as she spoke to them, "the houses will be split up into two. In the other house will be Harry and Ginny, George and Angelina, Bill and Fleur, Mum and dad, Percy and Audrey and me and Ronald."

The adults all smiled at one another as Hermione continued.

"In this house will be Lucy, Molly and Dominique sharing," Lucy groaned slightly, Amelia turned to look at her questioningly, "I was hoping that I would be able to share with you and James would go elsewhere."

"I was hoping for the same thing," Amelia said causing James to let out a fake laugh before shaking his head at her.

"Fred, Albus, Hugo and Louis sharing," Hermione continued reading, the boys just named cheering and jeering at each other causing Hermione to frown, "Rose, Lily and Roxanne sharing, James and Amelia sharing..."

"Hang on one minute!" Albus said loudly standing up causing everyone to look at him "Why do they get to share? I thought that rules in the house were no girlfriends sharing with boyfriends?"

The family all frowned at Albus's statement,

"Er Albus," James said raising his hand so his brother would look at him, "Me and Amelia are married."

"Barely," Amelia and James glanced at each other wondering how on earth he knew. They tried to hide their guilty looks before Albus continued, "you got married in Las Vegas, everyone knows they only do fake marriages."

"Who on earth told you that?" Ginny asked looking at her middle child with her hands on her hips.

"It's common knowledge," Albus stated looking around his family for confirmation they all continued staring at him.

"Albus I hate to break it to you but if you get married in Las Vegas you are married everywhere."

Albus went silent as he slowly sat down looking a little sheepish and shocked, but he quickly recovered as he sat down properly. Hermione frowned at him before she continued.

"Teddy and Victoire will be sharing," she quickly glared at Albus in case he interrupted again but he stayed quiet, "and Charlie will have his own room."

"Oh yeah!" Charlie said loudly punching the air.

"How comes he gets his own room?" Fred asked, "and four of us have to share one room!"

"You can share with me if you want?" Charlie offered but Fred just shook his head, "But I warn you now I may have some ladies come back with me," he gave him a wink and Fred gagged slightly.

"Godric no! I'd rather share with the others," he told him and Charlie let out a laugh.

Hermione scowled at them before she folded up her list and placed it neatly on the side, she turned back to them and saw that they were all in exactly the same places as they were before.

"Well off you go and put your stuff away," she said aiming her statement at the younger adults who all jumped up and made to the door exiting it as quickly as they could without getting stuck in the door, several pushes and yells of 'move it!' were heard as the group managed to get through without any major casualties much to the chagrin of their parents. Lucy came back into the room a few moments later carrying a medium sized bag and walking over to Ron who was talking to his wife.

"Uncle Ron," Lucy said standing in front of Ron who turned away from Hermione to look at her.

"Lucy... what a pleasant surprise I was worried you might not be able to make it, just like with my party," Ron said giving her a hard look, but Lucy gave him a smile.

"I am so terribly sorry for that Uncle Ron; I really wanted to be there."

"Well you missed a great party," Ron told her before turning back to look at his wife who had been brought into a conversation with Ginny and Percy.

"I know and I regret not being there, which is why I have brought you an extra special birthday present."

Ron turned around eagerly and took the bag that Lucy held out to him, all thoughts of his anger at her not being there forgotten as he smiled at her, letting out a gleeful yell as he looked in it.

"Chocolate, My favourite!" he told her giving her a big hug, Lucy smiled knowing that she was forgiven for missing the party.

"And it's Swiss chocolate from Honeydukes," Lucy told him, knowing that her Uncle Ron had always wanted to try Honeydukes chocolate in the store in Switzerland.

"You are my favourite niece," he told her quietly as he placed a kiss on her head and hugged her even tighter.

"Ok so we have our teams!" Albus called looking over at all of the boys and men surrounding him, each holding a broom (except for Arthur) and looking expectantly at him and James who were both captains of the impromptu Quidditch match they had decided to play in the massive garden.

"Uncle Charlie you will be seeker,"

Charlie let out a 'woop' as he walked forward and stood beside Albus as he looked mockingly over at the other team.

"And dad you will be Seeker," James said as Harry walked forward and stood next to James.

"As if he is able to play any other position," came Ron's voice from the back where he was in position to play Keeper, the others let out a laugh as Harry turned to glare at Ron who looked around as though he hadn't said anything.

"So," Charlie said swaggering forward his broom thrown over his shoulder as he stood in front of Harry and sized him up. "Think you can beat me?"

"I don't think I can," Harry said simply, "I **know** I can."

"So the chosen one against the better one. This is going to be interesting."

"Enough with the chit chat!" came Albus's voice, "we have a match to play. Now positions! Granddad are you ready to start that game?"

"Oh yeah," Arthur said putting his glasses on and settling into his chair comfortably, a table next to him with Ink, quill and parchment on it so he could keep track of the scores.

"Medic are you on standby?" called Albus looking over at Amelia who was sitting with the other girls, including a very angry Roxanne who was told she couldn't play as she was a professional Quidditch Player and that would be cheating. Same for Ginny who was currently in the kitchen with all of the older females, currently making refreshments for the boys and men. Amelia let out a groan as she shook her head,

"Why have I got to be the medic? You shouldn't need a medic," she called back.

"Well first of all you work in St Mungo's therefore would make the best medic, and secondly you always need a medic in a game as big as this." he turned away from her and back at everyone else.

"Ready Granddad?" Albus called as he jumped on his broom.

"On the count of three. One... two... three!" Arthur Weasley yelled.

With that everyone flew in to the air and the game began.

The girls at the start had been uninterested in the game but had found it hard to not be drawn into it. They were all cheering loudly as the team they picked to support scored a goal or saved a goal. Amelia was cheering for James's team, knowing that it would look suspicious if she didn't support her own husband's team.

She found whilst watching the game that she couldn't keep her eyes off of James as he flew around the air, throwing the Quaffle to Fred, her gaze lingering on his arms as she damned him in her head for ever getting them out in the first place.

The game so far had been very action packed, both of the teams each playing quite dirty and viciously, neither of the teams were afraid to hit, pinch, kick at each other or pull each other by the clothes to stop them from beating them. Arthur found this perfectly hilarious, and kept getting distracted by his wife who kept him refreshed with many cups of teas and plates of cakes.

"That was a foul!" James cried as he landed on the floor, the game momentarily pausing as Teddy landed on the floor as well. Teddy had had his Quaffle intercepted by James and retaliated by grabbing hold of his t-shirt to stop him getting away, ripping it from the back and tearing it so it hung loosely off of James's body.

Arthur looked up from his cup of tea at James and shook his head at Teddy. "I award a free throw to James," he said. Teddy threw his arms in the air as he got back on his broom and flew into the air. James quickly ran over to Amelia as he pulled his tattered top off of him and threw it to the ground next to her. Amelia looked up and felt her stomach swarm with butterflies as he knelt down in front of her.

She moved back slightly getting a better look at his sweaty face, his hair was wind swept and dishevelled and Amelia thought that he looked more beautiful then he had before. She felt shocked at her thoughts and quickly pushed them back pretending that she had never thought that.

"Can you get me another top please?" he asked her, his face inches in front of her face. She looked at him for a moment as she swallowed, trying to catch her breath and stop herself from looking down at his lips, his closeness intoxicating her more then it should.

"I prefer you without one," she said out loud without thinking. Her eyes widened as soon as she said those words and James smirked at her, knowing that she didn't want to admit that out loud. He stood back up still looking at her. He noticed that she let her gaze rise up to his eyes slowly.

"I'll stay like this then," he told her as he backed away and over to his broom, getting on it and carrying on playing, a wide goofy grin on his face as he rose in the air. Amelia tried to calm her breathing down as she glanced a look sideways and saw the other girls all giggling and winking at her. She rolled her eyes as she felt herself smiling with them, carrying on with watching the game.

The game ended a good hour later; many fouls were caused but nothing that required Amelia to act on her medic duties so she was able to continue watching with the others, including the older women who had all came out from the kitchen and were cheering along too.

The end was an epic battle between the both Charlie and Harry who had at one point during their chase of the snitch flown through their group causing them to dive out of the way and Charlie managed to grab the snitch though only by the skin of his teeth as Harry was right beside him grabbing for the snitch as well.

When they landed Charlie along with the rest of his team cheered loudly and called out how they had beaten the chosen one at the one thing he was good at. Harry laughed along with them, entirely used to his family making fun of him; he even enjoyed it most of the time. He shook hands with Charlie and congratulated him on a great match.


	9. Chapter 9

They had begun bickering the moment they set eyes on each other the next morning, mainly over stupid things such as 'Your shirt is hideous', ' jump off a cliff' and 'stop hogging all of the sunlight' All of them said by Amelia, who was still annoyed at James after last night.

Amelia knew that yesterday afternoon had been too good to be true. After the Quidditch match James had wanted to talk to Amelia about what had happened between them. This infuriated Amelia to no end as nothing did happen between them, or according to her nothing had happened between them, but James wouldn't hear the end of it and they had had an argument before they went to sleep.

Amelia was currently sitting in the kitchen with James sitting next to her; they were both sitting in an uneasy silence and were unsure of what to say to each other without having an argument.

James opened his mouth but thought better of talking to her and just settled back in his seat playing with the table cloth.

"Lily Potter!"

James and Amelia looked up quickly, wondering why someone had yelled Lily's name and why Lily was currently walking into the kitchen with a grin on her face.

"What have you done?" James asked her. Lily just shook her head before going to walk out of the back door but it immediately locked itself as Louis came in waving his wand at the door.

James and Amelia let out loud laughter as they took in the sight of Louis, his eyebrows and hair had been turned green. Lily slowly turned around to face his older cousin with a devilish smile on her face.

"Nice hair," she told him, causing Louis to glare at her.

"You change it back!" he said angrily pointing to his head. James and Amelia carried on laughing at him but he was ignoring them.

"Never!" Lily said crossing her arms, "I told you I would get you back didn't I?"

Louis looked a little confused at what she was talking about.

"I haven't done anything to you for you to get me back," he stated, looking to James and Amelia for their input but they just shrugged at him not knowing either.

"How about when you gave me those bath products that said on the box were Rose flavoured and even smelled like Rose before I decided to use them, and then found out were actually Dragon Dung flavoured! No one would come near me for a week!" Lily screamed at him, Louis's face suddenly broke into a smile as he remembered.

"That was funny," he told her before he realised something. "- That was well over a year ago!"

"Yeah well I never forgo,! I just had to make sure you forgot before I could get my revenge, it makes it just that bit better don't you think?"

"But making his eyebrows and hair grow green isn't that bad, it's only on your head," Amelia said looking at them both as she calmed down her laughter.

"Oh no it's not just there, it's everywhere! I look like I'm infected!" Louis told her, Amelia looked down at his arms and saw that they too were covered in green hair.

"Ha ha you look like a Kiwi!" James stated before him and Amelia giggled again.

"Do the counter spell!" Louis yelled at Lily who shook her head.

He ran forward and grabbed Lily but she turned it so she had somehow got him into a headlock, he tried to poke her in the ribs but he couldn't reach her. They both let out loud screams of anger as they continued fighting with each other.

Amelia jumped up to break them up as James ran from his seat and out of the door, which he unlocked and opened, calling wildly for help.

"Come on calm down both of you!" Amelia yelled but it fell on death ears, Louis had managed to get Lily to the floor and was trapping her so she was face down and he was sitting on her, he waved his wand and a squiggling line was making itself across her face, first drawing a comical curly moustache before making glasses.

Writing began making its way across her face spelling out 'Dung head', Lily let out a roar as she managed to shove him from her, learning from all of her fights with James and Albus how to get out of holds like this.

She shoved Louis to the floor as she grabbed her wand from her pocket and waved it at him. Long green hairs began sprouting from his ears and nose, he let out a roar before Lily waved her wand again and Louis's voice suddenly changed into only being able to quack. He let out a loud quack before grabbing Lily's arm.

Both of them began waving their wands frantically and Amelia found herself having to hide behind the table for shelter from the unruly spells being thrown between the two.

"What is going on here!" came the yell of Ginny Potter as her, Harry, Bill and Fleur rushed into the room to find the two fighting, James followed in behind them.

Harry rushed forwards and grabbed Lily away from Louis and Bill grabbed his son by the shoulders and held him back. The two cousins were still trying to fight each other but both Harry and Bill had managed to snatch their wands from them, giving them to Ginny and Fleur. Amelia decided that now would be a safe time to come out of hiding.

"What on earth has gotten into you two?" Ginny yelled as she took in their appearances and thankful that she was so angry otherwise she would have burst out into laughter, same with the other adults.

"Louis what is zee meaning of this?" Fleur asked her French accent not as strong as it used to be now that she was spending most of her time around the Weasley family and in England, but it was still there.

Lily and Louis glared at each other; Lily raised her hand and pointed at Louis, "HE started it!"

Louis let out a lot of indignant quacks, glaring at Lily. The adults were taken aback before Fleur waved her wand and Louis was able to speak normally.

"I did not! You came bursting into my room and turned my hair gree,!" Louis said after shooting a thankful look at his mother.

"Because you gave me Dragon Dung products," Lily cried.

"Over a year ago!" Louis shot back.

"Enough!" Harry yelled and they fell silent.

"Apologise to each other," Bill told them, they both looked at each other angrily. Lily pushed her hair out of her face and her hand fell of her hair at the back. She let out a shriek of horror as she realised that Louis had burnt most of it off. She let out another shriek as she struggled against her father to get to Louis who was smiling at her.

"I wouldn't be smiling pig face," Lily growled.

Louis's hand flew to his face and he realised that he had a pig snout for a nose.

"Oh you wait until I get you back for this," Louis warned her.

"There will be none of that!" Ginny snapped warningly, "If we find you two fighting again then I will personally snap your wands in two!"

They both fell silent and turned to look at Ginny in horror, "you can't do that!" Louis told her, "we're adults!"

"Precisely!" Bill yelled at them, "you shouldn't be doing stuff like this, we expect better of you."

"Now apologise to each other," Harry stated.

"I'm sorry," Lily said as her father let go of her. Louis apologised also as his father let go of him. They both turned around holding their hands out for their wands but Fleur waved her own wand confiscating the other one, they turned to look at her flabbergasted but she glared at them.

"We need to change ourselves back to what we looked like before" Lily said as Louis spoke at the same time saying, "Lily needs to give me the counter curse to change my hair back to normal."

"I don't theenk so," Fleur snapped at them, "you will walk around like this all day!" the others all agreed with each other.

"I am not going outside like this!" Lily said pointing at herself.

"I think you will, because you are not leaving our sights and I think the whole family should go for a nice long walk," Ginny said pleasantly, she turned around as Lily and Louis let out a loud groan.

"Where are we going?" Amelia asked her, Ginny smiled at her and placed a hand on Amelia's shoulder.

"Oh you and James don't have to come anywhere," she told her, Lily and Louis began protesting but a look from their fathers made them quiet again, "I've seen you two bickering lately and it must be because everyone is around so you never get any time to yourselves. You should stay here and have a nice day together." she dropped her hand from Amelia's shoulder and began walking out with the others.

"Oh yes we need some little ones running around 'ere." Fleur said with a laugh and a wink at both James and Amelia. They all left the room and Amelia turned to glare at James.

"Somehow I think this is your fault!" she snapped.

James and Amelia decided that they should also go visit the area surrounding the houses and Amelia wanted to find a few shops so she could buy some stuff. They walked down a cobbled road, not speaking to each other as they had bickered for most of the journey about trivial things.

"How about we have a few drinks?" Amelia snapped as she pushed her way into the pub without giving James a chance to reply.

"I want to go further down the town," James said as they entered the pub, Amelia pushed over to the bar and took a seat on the stool; James stood standing looking down at her.

"Well we're here now aren't we you can go look at shops in a minute."

"You know you don't always have to get your own way," James retaliated, "what about what I want to do?"

"We always do what you want to do," Amelia barked at him in annoyance, "like this holiday, going to the party, spending time with your family."

"You are enjoying yourself don't deny that," he told her crossing his arms, "and I have apologised profusely for the vacation."

"Yeah well I don't forgive you. And don't be so sure that I'm enjoying myself," she squinted her eyes at him.

"Well you seemed to be enjoying the view of me yesterday," he said in a whisper to her.

"You were sweaty and in my face where else was I meant to look?" she asked him.

"You are a piece of work do you know that? If you insist that we be here can we at least go sit in a booth?" he asked frustrated with her before pointing to an empty booth across the room.

"No I'm fine here." she told him, deliberately choosing to not do what he wanted to do.

James stared at her for a moment before shaking his head and walking over to the booth to sit down, getting more annoyed with her attitude to him.

Amelia rolled her eyes at James before she turned around to face the bar, she looked around her and caught the gaze of a tall, dark haired man in his late twenties, he gave her a warm smile and she returned it.

He walked over to her and leaned on the bar with one arm; he held out a hand to her and introduced himself. She gazed at him and told him she was called Amelia before she glanced over at James who was looking at her with a jealous but angry look over her face. She knew exactly how she was going to get him back.

"So what brings you to these parts?" The man asked her a flirtatious look in his eyes as he looked her up and down.

"What are you doing?" James growled at Amelia, she turned to look at him an eyebrow raised as she watched the guy she had been talking to went further up the bar to get him and her a drink.

"Having fun what does it look like?"

"We are married," he told her angrily, "you shouldn't be flirting with other guys!"

"I think you'll find, that we are not together!" Amelia shot back.

"That may be true, but we are still legally married," James stated.

"Yeah well what I do is no concern of yours is it? You don't own me do you? I can do what I like."

"Fine! Fine!" James said angrily, "do what you want." he added in a growl before he shook his head and walked away from her, her eyes followed him as he walked over to the other side of the pub sitting in a booth alone.

Amelia felt nervous at him being so far away and she felt a sudden pain of regret at the way she was behaving but she couldn't let him see that. She didn't want him to know that she cared; it would just open her up to more hurt in the long run.

The man came back over to her two drinks in his hand; Amelia placed hers on the side beside her suddenly not trusting herself to drink it. Her eyes glanced over to James who was fuming angrily and looking away from her.

"So where were we?" the man asked bringing Amelia's gaze back to him.

"How about we go some place quieter," the man said in a whisper his breath tickling Amelia's ear as he leaned forward, one hand was holding his drink and the other had rested itself on her knee. Amelia didn't like the way this was going one bit, sure she wanted to make James jealous at first but now it was going a bit too far.

"I think I'd rather stay here," she told him leaning away from him and moving his hand from her. The man stood up normally looking down at his hand before looking back up at her.

"Now come on, don't be like that. We were having such a nice talk," he said staring at her a sudden hard edge that made Amelia more nervous than before, she looked to her side and saw that James had disappeared from his seat.

"Yeah that's just what it was a talk. But thank you for the drink that was most kind," Amelia told him as calmly as she could as she got off of her seat and stood up. The man caught her arm before she could walk away and Amelia felt a bad feeling fill through her.

"You can't go around flirting with guys and letting them buy you drinks without some sort of appreciation back if you catch my drift."

"Can you please let go of my arm, I need to leave," Amelia said trying to push the man's hand off of her but he wasn't budging.

The man laughed slightly, "all I ask for is some appreciation."

Amelia felt her eyes widen as she tried to think of a way out of this. She felt someone brushed up behind her and the man's hand was released from her grip, she staggered backwards into the person behind her and whirling around she saw that James was standing behind her, glaring daggers at the man.

She rushed behind him and hugged him tightly and for protection, peering at the man from around James's body.

"She told you to let go of her," James said threateningly, the man let out a laugh as he sized up James who was a few inches taller than him.

"Listen mate this isn't any of your concern."

"It is when you're manhandling my wife," he growled making himself clear, the man's eyes grew wide as he began apologising profusely.

"Mate I am so sorry, I thought she was single." He held up his hands in defence as he began backing away.

"Well she isn't," James snapped as he grabbed for Amelia's hand and taking it tightly, he gave the man one final fierce look before he walked them out of the pub. Amelia rushed after him, not wanting to be anyway near that pub with the man there.

They had only made it a few meters before Amelia stopped and threw her arms around James appreciatively.

"Thank you so much!" she cried hugging him tightly, she felt him gently pull her away from him and look down at her.

"I think we should be heading back," he told her the angry tone still in his voice and the fury still evident on his face. Amelia nodded as she followed behind him suddenly feeling stupid for ever thinking it would be a good idea to flirt with a complete stranger to make James jealous.

"I'm sorry," Amelia told him softly as she fell into step beside him, for he had slowed down slightly for her to catch up. James didn't say anything but he reached out to gently take her hand, and Amelia for once didn't want to let go of it, together they walked back to the house in silence.

When they arrived at the house they saw that everyone had come back and were all gathering around the kitchen making preparations for dinner. The adults had decided that the entire family would sit down every night for dinner, charming one of the kitchens so it would be large enough to fit them all in. They saw Louis and Lily laughing with each other as they placed plates on the table, their earlier fight forgotten and the spells they had cursed each other with, obviously reversed so they looked normal, even Lily's hair had grown back to the original length.

They let go of each other's hands when they entered the room properly but some of the adults caught sight of it and grinned at each other knowingly, Amelia tried to ignore their looks as she asked if anything needed to be done. She was handed cutlery to place on the table whilst James was asked to help Dominique bring in chairs from the other house.

Once everything was set out and almost everyone had sat down at the table, talk got onto the subject of what everyone had got up to that day. James and Amelia told the family that they had had a nice stroll around the town, not mentioning what had happened in the pub, guilty looks on their reddening faces which the family took to mean something else.

"Spent some alone time in the town eh?" Fred said with a wink as he nudged James in the elbow, James rubbed his side as he shook his head at his cousin.

"Nothing like that," James stated. Fred turned to look at Albus who was sitting his other side.

"What's up with him?" Fred asked Albus loudly ignoring James's groan of annoyance.

"His obviously not getting any from Amelia," Albus said simply causing an outcry from James and Amelia. They had to be silenced by Arthur who yelled for everyone to be quiet. The talk went onto what the others had done all day.

"We found a park," Bill told James and Amelia as he had his arm around the back of Fleur's empty seat, she was currently helping Molly dish out the food onto plates so they could be placed on the table.

"It was so much fun!" Charlie told them.

"My family were so immature," Percy stated to Amelia, puffing himself out slightly to show that he in fact wasn't immature.

"Oh come on now honey, you were the first one on that slide thingy," Audrey said waving her hand in front of her as she described the object.

"Only because Bill pushed me,"

"Yeah on a swing," Harry giggled, Percy sighed as he shook his head.

"At least I didn't get stuck on that thing that spun around in a circle because someone pushed it too fast," he told them regally, looking pointedly at Ron.

"They were **all** pushing me!" Ron said defensively pointing at each of the younger ones in turn, leaving out Amelia and James.

"At least I didn't get stuck in a swing meant for children," Ron stated looking at his dad who was smiling down at them almost proudly.

"Guilty!" Arthur said raising a hand before beaming at them, "glorious things, I'm thinking of installing one at home."

"Those monkey bars were great though!" George told them all, the others all nodded their appreciation of the monkey bars.

"But you were cheating," Molly junior said loudly shaking her head at her Uncle, "you had Uncle Charlie and Uncle Bill holding you up."

"Still done them," George said proudly.

"That wasn't as fun as that see-saw thing!" Dom exclaimed looking at the others. "We all had a go on that."

"It would have been more fun if it wasn't boys versus girls, you're end had more people," Hugo cried. They all began to get into a heated argument but were quickly stopped by Molly, Fleur and Ginny who were bringing over the food, magically levitating it all over and sitting down, before nodding that everyone could dig in.

It wasn't long before they had all finished their dinners and were happily lazing on their chairs, feeling very full and satisfied.

"That was fantastic!" Arthur cried appreciatively as the rest all agreed with him. "Now does anyone have anything to say," he looked around at the table seeing if anyone wanted to say something. Harry stood up slowly.

"I would like to say something," he told them as he looked around at them al,l "I am very very glad that we decided to have this family holiday."

"In honour of my birthday," Ron put in from his seat next to Harry, who turned to look at Ron before turning to look back at the others.

"Yes to celebrate Ron's birthday. But this is also special because it's not often that we all get to be together and I think that we should all try and do this more."

Everyone agreed with him heartily and Harry gave a smile before continuing.

"I didn't have much of a family when I was growing up and I'm glad that I can look to you all as my own family and I am so glad that you accepted me as one of you."

"Only because you kept inviting yourself over," George said loudly causing people to chuckle. "We couldn't get rid of you."

"Well I am the boy-who-lived," he told them with a smirk, everyone groaned (apart from Amelia) they had all heard this story many times before and knew it off by heart.

"I was a young boy, scared, alone, chased by an evil man known as -" Harry began.

"He who must not be named. And no matter what I did he would never leave me alone!" Albus interrupted his father, who looked annoyed that he had been interrupted.

"And along the way I met great people who would help me face him and I knew that I wasn't alone anymore," came Molly juniors voice finishing for her cousin Albus. Harry frowned a bit more.

"But when the time comes I knew that only I could defeat the dark lord!" Charlie put in after Molly, Harry opened his mouth to say something but James interrupted him.

"With a massive mackerel!" James yelled throwing his arms wide indicating how big the mackerel would be.

"Yes - WAIT! No!" Harry stated shaking his head at his family, "can I finish without being interrupted?" he asked them, they all mumbled at him and Harry carried on.

"As I was saying I single handedly defeated he  
who must not be named -"

"Woah! Hang on one minute!" Ron said outraged as he too stood up and looked at Harry who had turned around to face him, "single-handedly?"

"Well yeah you got basilisk fangs - I destroyed him," Harry stated.

"But I thought dad defeated him?" Hugo said sadly turning to face his mother a sad look in his eyes. "Dad always told me it was him that defeated he who must not be named and Harry was just taking the credit because dad didn't want all the fame."

Ron coughed uncomfortably as Hermione shook her head at her husband before turning to look at her son, "Honey, your dad may have exaggerated."

"A lot," Harry said, Ron glared at him before shrugging.

"Whatever Harry, at least I got the girl!" he winked at Hermione.

"I didn't want your girl," Harry told him, he thought of Hermione as a sister, everyone knew that. Ron rounded on Harry.

"Are you saying that there is something wrong with my wife?" he asked incredulously.

"What? No!" Harry said as he and Ron began bickering, "I had a girl."

"Not during our last year you didn't," Ron yelled, their argument getting louder, Hermione and Ginny let out a sigh and were annoyed at being referred to as being their girls.

"Well that didn't matter I got her in the end and I also had her during our fifth year."

"But that doesn't matter I had my girl the entire time," Harry bellowed back.

"Oh no holding hands with a girl back then! I'm so jealous," Harry said sarcastically.

"Well it's much more then you were doing with your girl!" Ron shouted.

Harry had a smug grin on his face as he looked at Ron, "I done a lot more then hold her hand."

Ron glared at him "No you didn't! You done nothing!"

"Oh yeah? Want to bet on that?" They were squaring off on each other, the other family members would have been concerned or stopped this if they didn't argue every other day, as it did they did argue every other day.

"Yeah! Yeah I do!" Ron told him poking him in the chest; Harry looked down before he poked Ron back and yelled as loud as he could.

"Well I win then because back then I was doing your sister!" He smiled smugly again as Ron fell silent and Harry realised that he had won this bickering match that they had, he turned to face the others and saw that they were all looking at him in shock and some of them, Ginny's brothers, mum and dad were all looking at Harry murderously. Harry gulped slightly.

"Would it help if I said I was the chosen one?" he asked jokingly as he sat down slowly and tried to hide behind his wife, who moved quickly out of the way.

"Oh no! You are on your own!" she said shaking her head as she moved her chair away from her husband.

He let out an uncomfortable cough as he said, "I would like to point out that out of the kindness of my heart I am letting you all stay in my holiday homes, completely free of charge and I am willing to pay for all amenities."

They all continued staring at him and Harry knew that it would take a lot for them to forgive him for his outburst.

"So... who wants dessert?" he enquired.


	10. Chapter 10

"Can't we just wake up one day and not have an argument with each other?" James asked as Amelia put her toiletries back onto the side and pulled her hair up into a ponytail, she had just got changed after James had not so quietly gotten up, making sure to kick her bed and trip over her bag, giving out a loud yell as he crashed to the floor.

He had told her it was an accident but by the look on his face she couldn't be too sure and could have sworn he done it on purpose.

"Apparently not," Amelia told him when she had finished, "because you are a jerk every morning and the rest of the day you get more and more annoying."

James glared at her, "and you're a saint are you?" he asked her as he opened the door and exited the room, she rolled her eyes at him as she followed him out of the room, down the corridor and down the stairs.

"I'm more of a saint then you are," she told him heatedly as they made their way to the kitchen.

James just growled back at her as he went over to a cupboard and pulled out a bowl, making sure to slam the door shut when he had finished. Amelia rolled her eyes at his behaviour and walked over to the table sitting down at it.

Molly, Dom, Lucy and Charlie were already sitting down at it watching James carefully. James grabbed some cereal and milk and added it to his bowl before grabbing a spoon.

Amelia glowered at him as she stood up and went over to the counter as she grabbed her own bowl out of the cupboard and placed it on the side.

"Oh I get it; you leave your wife out. But then again you do only think of yourself don't you," she snapped.

"Is everything ok?" Charlie asked James and Amelia as James came and sat down in Amelia's seat and ate his cereal.

"I'm fine, I'm not sure about the princess over there," James told him before turning to look at Amelia and saying, "Who can't even get her own breakfast as she thinks that I am her slave and should be at her beck and call!"

Amelia stared at him before she threw her spoon onto the side, leaving her empty bowl forgotten on the side. She stormed over to the back door and out of the house slamming the back door behind her.

James flinched slightly at the sound as Molly, Dom and Lucy glared at him, Lucy ran out after Amelia.

"Uncle Charlie never get married," James said shaking his head as he continued eating his cereal.

"I'll bare that in mind," Charlie said slowly turning to look at Molly and Dom, both of them shrugged at him, no idea what on earth was going on between James and Amelia.

"Amelia!" Lucy called as she ran over to where Amelia had chosen to sit down, her arms wrapped around her as she glared out ahead of her.

"Amelia are you ok?" Lucy asked as she caught up with her and sat down next to her.

"I'm fine," Amelia told her as she ran a hand through her long dark hair and took a deep breath, "it's just...James is being a bit of an idiot."

"Yeah I can tell that he's annoying you," Lucy admitted, "I thought you were having lots of fun yesterday, what happened today?"

Amelia let out a sigh, "as soon as we wake up we bicker, it's been happening most days," she admitted to Lucy, she wondered for a moment whether she should just admit to Lucy exactly what was happening between her and James.

"Actually I think you should kn..."

"Oh there you two are," James said as he came over to them, Amelia stopped talking and a hard glare set on her face. Lucy looked from Amelia to James and felt like she was being caught in the middle.

"What do you want?" Amelia snapped looking away from James as he stood next to her and Lucy. Lucy shifted uncomfortably beside her and Amelia felt slightly sorry for her for being here when they were acting this way to each other.

"I need to talk to you," James said shoving his hands into his trouser pockets.

"Well as you can see I am busy, so you can just go," Amelia told him still not looking at him, she didn't want to, she knew she wouldn't be able to stay as angry at him if she saw the puppy dog look on his face that she knew he would be wearing.

James stood where he was, everyone falling into an uneasy silence before he tutted and walked away. Amelia squeezed her eyes shut as she begged herself to stay where she was and not chase after him, feeling suddenly guilty for being so short with him especially after how he had saved her yesterday.

She knew she should talk to him about what happened yesterday but she was scared, scared to admit that she still felt something for him, scared because he seemed so angry at her and it hurt her more then she care to admit. Scared that all she wanted to do was make him happy.

She shook her head vigorously as though shaking these thoughts from her head; she wouldn't allow herself to think like that, she couldn't forgive him. She couldn't go back to how they used to be and she was torturing herself by being so close to him and falling back under his spell again.

"Amelia are you ok?" Lucy asked making Amelia open her eyes, Amelia was surprised to find her lashes wet and she quickly stood up, wiping them as inconspicuously as she could. She turned to face Lucy and placed a smile on her face.

"I'm fine...just fine."

Lucy didn't believe her as she stood up and both her and Amelia walked back inside. The others had finished their breakfast and Lucy and Amelia looked around. She hoped that James had come in here but she knew she wouldn't say anything to him.

Instead choosing to snap at him and choosing an argument to make him not want to be around her anymore, she didn't want him to think he could stay in her life after this party. She couldn't let him think that they could still be friends when they went back home.

It was with this thought that Amelia let out a sigh and left Lucy standing in the kitchen, making her way back up to the room she was staying in and telling Lucy that she just wanted to be left alone. Once she had got to the door, she faltered slightly hoping that James wasn't in there before she opened it slowly.

She let out a sigh as she saw that it was empty but she didn't know whether it was out of relief or annoyance that he wasn't there, she walked further into the room the door shutting behind her as she sat on her bed and put her head in her hands.

Amelia made her way back downstairs around midday, feeling hunger hit her as she hadn't had any breakfast she decided that she might as well have some food. But as she made her way into the kitchen she noticed that it was more crowded then usual.

"But why?" came Fred's wail, Amelia looked over and saw that he was slumped on the kitchen table and his grandmother Molly had obviously said something that had upset him.

"Because your grandmother has asked you to," Angelina snapped smacking her son around the back of the head, "so you will do it."

Fred huffed loudly as he rubbed the back of his head, "this is so unfair! I am on holiday I shouldn't be made to work!"

"And yet you expect your mother and myself to cook your food for you?" Molly asked hands on her hips and staring down at her grandson.

"Well yeah..." Fred said with a shrug, causing his mother to smack him around the back of the head again.

"Apologise to your grandmother," Angelina snapped.

Fred let out a loud, "OW!" before he turned to Molly and apologised.

"It's not like you'll be doing it on your own," George told him from across the room where he was leaning against the counter.

"Yeah you'll have Dom, Louis, James and Amelia helping you out."

"What about the others?" Fred cried as Amelia wondered just what she had been roped into doing.

"They will make lunch for everyone tomorrow,"

Fred huffed again as he stood up clearly in a stro,. "I suppose I have no choice."

"No you don't!" Angelina told him with a smile as she ruffled his hair affectionately, "now we will go gather the others and you can start. We've got everything out for you so you just have to prepare it."

"Oh joy! I cannot wait!" Fred said sarcastically as he stood up and walked over to the kitchen counter so he could start on the lunch. Angelina and Molly left the house and Amelia walked over to where Fred was still throwing his strop.

"I suppose we should get started then," Amelia told Fred who sighed loudly.

"So in order to make the cakes you take this flour and mix it with the milk and butter," Dom said as she looked around her grabbing the items.

The others all smiled at Dom who was looking very confused as she poured everything into the mixing bowl in front of her and then reading back the instructions. "And then you mix it with a whisk...what is a whisk?" she asked the others.

James leaned across Amelia and took hold of the whisk on the side and passing it to Dom who thanked him before jabbing at the mess of ingredients in the bowl.

"Ok Muggles are crazy," Dom declared as the whisk got stuck and refused to budge. James, Fred, Louis and Amelia all laughed at her.

James was currently grating cheese, Amelia was chopping up carrots and lettuce for the salad, Louis was cutting and buttering several pieces of bread and Fred was preheating the oven for Dom's cakes.

"This is so boring!" Fred declared as he closed the oven door and walked over to the sink so he could wash the vegetables for Amelia to cut.

"How about we put some music on," James suggested as he finished grating the cheese and walking over to the wireless radio by the window. He fiddled with the dials before it buzzed into a song that the others laughed at, Amelia barely recognised it.

"Oh man, not this song!" Fred laughed as he continued washing the vegetables, "remember when Nan would play it all the time?"

Louis let out a laugh, "yes!" he cried, "literally every time we went over to her house it was on."

Dom giggled as she began singing along to the song, Amelia watched as the others all tapped their fingers on the sides and sang along.

"Do you not know this song Amelia?" Louis asked as he noticed Amelia hadn't sung along.

"I've heard of it but not enough to know the words. It is quite a bit before we were bor,n" she told them as she placed her knife down and wiped her hands on her jeans. She had no idea why they were required to prepare lunch without the use of wands and looking around she noticed that they were by far hopeless.

James laughed as he walked closer to Amelia; her eyes widened slightly wondering what on earth he was going to do. He reached forward and grabbed her hand and before she could do anything he had pulled her towards him, she let out a scream as James wrapped his free hand around her and began dancing with her.

Louis and Fred let out a groan as Dom let out an 'aww' at the sight of them. James began singing to Amelia as he twirled her around the kitchen, Amelia felt all of the annoyance drift out of her as she let out a laugh, she relaxed herself as she began dancing energetically with James. He twirled her before pulling her back towards him and dipping her.

"Oh get a room," Dom yelled as she threw some flour at them. James quickly pulled Amelia up as he grabbed some flour himself and threw that at a screaming Dom. Before long a full out flour war had happened and they all let out screams as they had covered each other in flour.

Dom turned her attention on Fred and Louis whilst James threw some Flour at Amelia who squealed loudly before she grabbed some carrots to throw at him.

"Hey! No fair! Carrots are hard," James laughed as he grabbed for her hand as she picked up some more. He pulled her around so her back was to the counter and pushed her backwards just as Amelia pushed her hand down the back of his top and dropped the carrots down it.

He shuddered as the coldness of them travelled down his back and he lurched forward slightly. Amelia's laugh faded as she noticed just how close James was to her. He seemed to have noticed as well as his gaze looked over Amelia's face which was mere inches from hers.

Amelia licked her lips subconsciously and James's gaze moved down to it, he began moving forward and Amelia felt her stomach do back flips as she lent forwards.

"Hey, Hey, Hey," came Louis's cry as another handful of flour hit James from behind, some of it catching Amelia in the face. James stood up straight, pulling Amelia up as well; she wiped her face with one hand as James continued holding the other one.

"We will be having none of that in my kitchen," Louis declared hands on his hips and bearing a striking resemblance to his grandmother.

James let go of Amelia's hand as he coughed awkwardly and ran his hand through his hair, a streak of flour marking where his hand had gone, he looked around at the mess that they had made and shook his head. "How about we clean up and do everything the easy way?" he suggested.

The others agreed as they all got their wands out and waved them, the kitchen cleaned itself as the food prepared itself. They all looked around at each other and laughed seeing the mess they had made on each other.

"How about we all go clean ourselves up?" Fred suggested to them as he began walking to the door but Dom stopped him.

"If we leave they'll get suspicious," Dom pointed out and the others agreed before they waved their wands at themselves instantly making themselves look clean.

"How about we just sit down and have a drink?" Louis suggested, the others agreed happily as they each grabbed drinks and sat down over at the table, flicking their wands when they need to prepare something else.

"I don't know what mum moans about," Fred stated as she put his legs on the table and waved his wand, "this is so easy!"

James looked over at Amelia, who was trying her hardest to not look him in the eye; she knew that he wanted to talk about what just happened.

All of this talking was really starting to get to Amelia who had never known a guy to want to talk about what was happening between them and how they felt about each other so much, it was like he was secretly a girl, she couldn't see a way to avoid him but she knew that she would have to.

As soon as everyone had eaten lunch, Amelia had excused herself from the table so she could go have a shower. Almost running to the bedroom she was staying in and grabbing her stuff she rushed down the hallway and entered the bathroom just as she heard James coming up the stairs.

She sighed as she got out of her clothes and into the hot shower, she had no idea what to say to him and she knew she couldn't avoid him forever. She knew that she couldn't tell him how she was really feeling.

She thought back to what happened between them as she washed her hair and to their near kiss. What she would have given to kiss him but she knew she couldn't.

This thought pained her as kissing him would only lead to trouble, it would only lead to more pain. But she wasn't sure she could feel more pain then what she was already going through by seeing him everyday and being so close to him. And she knew by the way James looked at her when he thought Amelia wasn't looking that he felt this too.

She stood there dejectedly for a while as she let the water cascade down her, trying to gather the courage to go out there and tell James that there was absolutely nothing going on between them as much as she wanted there to be.

Ten minutes later she had gotten out of the shower, dried herself and got dressed in new clothes. Gathering her stuff she walked out of the bathroom and back down to her room, hovering outside it for a moment to gather her strength she had to really try and find she opened the door and walked in.

She was right James was in there waiting for her to come back he was sat on the bed and watching her, Amelia by passed him as she placed her stuff into her bag and stood up with a sigh as James said,

"Amelia I think we should talk about what happened earlier."

Amelia turned around to face him as she set an angry look on her face.

"But why? Why do we need to talk about something that didn't mean anything?" she snapped at him, throwing her arms in the air.

"It did mean something, I saw the look in your eyes you wanted to kiss me back, I know you did," James said as he stood up and turned to face her.

"You don't know anything!"

"Just admit to it Amelia."

"What do you want from me James?" she screamed at him.

"I want you to tell me that you don't feel anything for me! Look me in the eye and you tell me that you didn't feel anything back in the kitchen."

Amelia looked up and stared at him angrily, "I felt nothing," she said lying through her teeth but James couldn't tell that she was lying or that she doubted herself. "And we shouldn't be doing this. We shouldn't be getting this close, we need to go our separate ways and we're only hurting ourselves if we give in to this thing that you think is going on between us."

"And why not? What is so wrong with going back to what we are?"

"Because I am only here because I have to be! Not because I want to be. I don't want to  
be around you, I don't want to be sharing a room with you and I certainly don't want to be in love with you. I just can't not after what you've done! I've hated you since I found out."

James just stared at her and Amelia had to scream internally at herself to not take her words back, "which is why I want a divorce when we leave James."

"You can't mean that," James cried rushing over to her grabbing hold of her arm; Amelia heard his voice break with emotion, making her heartbreak at the sound of it.

She refused to look at him as she said, "I do James. I just want this to be over and done with as quick as possible then I can properly move on from you and this. I can't stand to be around you."

James dropped her arm as though it had scalded him as a rage had filled his face and Amelia knew that she had said the right words to make him hate her.

"Fine. You want a divorce we'll have one!" he yelled at her seething at her, his mood changing drastically as soon as he realised that she wouldn't change her mind and he didn't want her to see that it was a decision that broke his heart, "I hope you're bloody well happy."

And with that he walked over to the open door and stormed out of it, not even turning around to apologise to his cousin when he bashed her into the wall. Not even caring that she was that close to the door when they were arguing.

Not caring that she probably heard everything, just not caring about anything but getting away from Amelia as fast as he could.

Lucy straightened herself up shooting a glare in the direction that her cousin had gone off into before turning back around to face the door. Not believing what she had just heard, none of it made sense to her and she needed an explanation.

Walking to the doorway and looking in she saw Amelia had sat down on the bed her head in her hands as she was quietly sobbing.

"Amelia?" Lucy asked.

Amelia's head shot up as she saw Lucy standing at the doorway, her face registering the confused look on Lucy's face and Amelia knew that Lucy had heard some if not the entire conversation.

"What just happened?"

* * *

A/N: :-O someone knows! And just for all of you here is a sneak preview of the next chapter :-D

Next time on Chapter 11 of Ilusions of a perfect marriage.

_Amelia rushed over to him apologies slipping from her mouth as she made her way over to him but he held up a hand to stop her. Amelia stopped where she was and looked down at him, not liking the look on his face and feeling a sense of dread fill through her as he asked her to take a seat on the chair. She sank slowly down into it as she wrapped her arms around herself protectively, surely he couldn't be this angry about what happened. And before she could stop herself she apologised again._

_"I am so sorry James, I really am. I felt so bad for what I said and I want you to know that I didn't mean it I..."_

_"Something happened last night," he said slowly and in an almost hushed whisper but Amelia caught every word._


	11. Chapter 11

A/N: I thought I would update another chapter for all of you wonderful readers :D

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"There's nothing going on," Amelia tried lying to her friend as she wiped her eyes with her thumbs, "we just had an argument," she knew that Lucy didn't believe her in the slightest as she closed the door so they could have some privacy.

"Don't give me that Amelia, I heard you telling James that you wanted a divorce because of something he done. What's going on? Are you not together?"

Amelia stared at her friend and felt the whole truth spilling out of her. "No we're not together,"

"Did you split up on this holiday?"

Amelia shook her head as Lucy came and sat down next to her, "we've been split up since January."

Lucy just stared at her as though she were crazy, "then why hasn't he said anything to us? Why didn't **you** say anything to me?"

Amelia wiped her eyes again as she pushed her hair out of her face, "I don't know why James didn't tell anyone, but I never told you because I was embarrassed, embarrassed because everyone was right about us -"

"- They told us we wouldn't make it past two years because we hadn't been with each other very long before we got married. I didn't want to tell them that he ruined my life, I didn't want everyone to know that James had ripped out my heart."

"What did he do? And you could have told me I never thought what the others did. I would have never thought that," Lucy told her as she wrapped her arm around Amelia's shoulders comfortingly.

"I didn't want you to choose between me and your cousin. We wouldn't have been able to stay as close as we were because it would have been awkward for you, because no matter what you would have stuck up for him because he was family. And I would never hate you for that because family should stick up for each other."

Lucy fell silent as she took in what Amelia had said knowing that she was totally right no matter how much she wanted to deny it. "I'm your friend, and I'm going to be there for you as much as I can now. I don't want you to be alone in this, you have me ok?"

Amelia nodded as she felt fresh tears brimming to her eyes, Lucy hugged her tightly and Amelia let herself cry into her shoulder before she calmed down her breathing and sobs.

Pulling away and looking down at her hands which were shaking as she tried to ignore the headache that was now filling her head from her crying she began to talk.

"It all started on New Year's Eve. I had been working a lot of double shifts at St Mungo's because a healer hadn't turned up and I was practically running the ward alone until we could get someone up to cover for us. I would be at home and sleep for a few hours before I had to go back to work. I was tired and stressed out and James's attitude wasn't helping at all. Don't get me wrong he was great and supportive but I think all of my working had started to affect him too..."

_Amelia let out a tired sigh as she slumped down on the sofa, kicking off her shoes she rested her head back and closed her eyes, feeling the tiredness sweep over her. only a few more days and she would have a few days off, she couldn't wait to just stay in bed and sleep, just cuddled up to James and not worry about being called into work._

_"Hey are you not going to get ready?" James's voice said bringing her out of her thoughts and she opened her eyes slowly as she rose her head to look at him._

_"What are you talking about?" she asked yawning loudly as she looked up at him. He was wearing a nice blue shirt with his dark trousers and had managed to tame his hair slightly._

_"The New Years Eve party that Albus has invited us to," James told her with a frown, feeling slightly annoyed that she had forgotten about the party._

_"Honey I'm so sorry but I don't think that I can go. I am so exhausted, I was rushed off of my feet all day and I barely got a break, I just want to have a nice long bath and get into bed. Can't you just go alone?"_

_James heaved out an annoyed sigh as he threw his hands in the air at her words._

_"You never want to go out!" he cried in irritation, "you always want to stay in."_

_"I don't always want to stay in James; you know I've been working hard at my job. You don't know what it's been like," she told him feeling angry at the way that he was behaving, "I have been at work nonstop, my last day off was Christmas morning and you know I had to go back into work at midnight. I am completely shattered."_

_"And you don't think I'm shattered because of my work?"_

_"Yeah well that's different if I don't work hard then I don't have a job," Amelia threw back at him as she pointed at herself suddenly feeling more angry at him, not everyone could have their life handed to them on a silver platter like James had. _

_"So you're saying that I had my job easy?" James asked. Amelia knew him well enough that he was picking an argument with her and like the idiot she was she took the bait, and dished out the lowest thing she could have._

_"You have got an easy job James! In case you haven't noticed I am a healer I had to work damn hard to get where I am because I didn't have a daddy to hand everything to me. I didn't just get given the job because my dad was famous I got it because I studied and studied hard for it."_

_James fumed on the spot and Amelia instantly regretted what she had said as he grabbed for his jacket off of the side of the sofa and stormed from the room_

_"James come back I didn't mean it," Amelia cried as she got off of the sofa and ran after him, grabbing his arm he wrenched it away from her and glared down at her, "I'm sorry!" Amelia told him hoping that he would accept her apology but she knew by the hard look in his eyes that he wouldn't, she had hurt him with the one thing he hated, because his father had helped him get the job and even though he had worked hard whilst there it would always be there that he only got the job because he was Harry Potters son._

_"No you're not." He growled angrily._

_Amelia tried a different tactic as she knew that James wasn't forgiving her, "look just give me a minute and I'll get ready, I'll come out ok."_

_"What's the point? So you can just nag at me and moan all the time that you're tired? I'd rather go alone."_

_"James don't be like this, I'm sorry about what I said. You can't leave this angry just calm down first, please I am so sorry let me make it up to you, I want you to know I didn't mean it."_

_"Tough," he snapped as he opened the front door, "don't wait up I'm not sure if I'll be home." and with that he walked out slamming the door shut behind him. Amelia jumped startled by the noise it made. _

_She shook her head as she cursed out loudly running her hand over her face wearily, why did she have to say it? She walked over to the bathroom and closed the door behind her as she run a bath, the argument playing over and over in her head. _

_She hoped to Merlin that James would calm down and realise that she didn't mean what she had said. _

_She woke up alone the next morning, opening her eyes blearily she noticed that James's side of the bed looked empty, she sighed as she sat up straight and stretched her body. Pushing the covers off of her she grabbed her dressing gown and wrapped that around her as she walked out of the bedroom. _

_She stopped suddenly as she noticed that James was sat on the sofa, still wearing the clothes from yesterday. He was staring ahead of him as he bit on the side of his thumbnail, clearly deep in thought about something._

_Amelia rushed over to him apologies slipping from her mouth as she made her way over to him but he held up a hand to stop her. Amelia stopped where she was and looked down at him, not liking the look on his face and feeling a sense of dread fill through her as he asked her to take a seat on the chair. _

_She sank slowly down into it as she wrapped her arms around herself protectively, surely he couldn't be this angry about what happened. And before she could stop herself she apologised again._

_"I am so sorry James, I really am. I felt so bad for what I said and I want you to know that I didn't mean it I..."_

_"Something happened last night," he said slowly and in an almost hushed whisper but Amelia caught every word._

_"Wh...What do you mean something happened? Are you ok? Is Albus ok?" she asked before she could stop herself. James coughed as he changed his position on the sofa and leant forward his elbows on his knees as he looked down at the floor._

_"I got really drunk. Too drunk, I was just so angry about what happened and I wanted to forget about it..."_

_Amelia felt the dread building inside her, her mind telling her exactly where this was going but she didn't stop him, hoping that she was going to be wrong, praying that it was something else._

_"...Albus's friend has this girl roommate and she was there. I was talking to Albus and before I knew it this girl grabbed me and kiss me on midnight. I tried to push her away but my brain went really fuzzy and I don't really remember what happened..."_

_"Well that's ok because you just kissed her right?" Amelia asked tearfully her voice shaking with sobs that were trying to escape but she swallowed them back, "we can work through this many people kiss each other at midnight on New Year 's Eve..."_

_James looked up at her his expression sad and sorrowful as he shook his head at her and Amelia stopped talking as she felt her heart thud painfully. _

_"I don't remember the rest of the night. I just remember pushing her away and then waking up this morning, she was there. I had collapsed in her bed."_

_Amelia felt the air leave her as her heart felt like it was breaking slowly and painfully, she felt more tears fill her eyes as she looked down at her hands, not knowing what she was meant to do all she could do was listen in horror at his next words. _

_"I wasn't wearing anything..."_

_Amelia closed her eyes tightly as she felt the words echo around her head as though he was repeating them over and over. She felt her whole body become numb but she was aware that she was shaking slightly. Her feeling of dread had turned to a feeling of sickness. _

_"Amelia I'm so sorry. I..." he reached forward to grab her hand but she stood up suddenly, dropping his hand from hers as she opened her eyes and stared ahead of her, not letting herself look at him, not wanting to see the guilty look in his face because that would make it real, it would make everything he told her true._

_"Get out," she said in a whisper, knowing that she wasn't breathing in enough air to make her voice louder but she knew that James could hear her, "please just... just get out."_

Lucy was staring at her; her hand covered her opened mouth in shock at what Amelia had just told her.

"Oh my Godric!" she cried.

"I kicked him out after that, he apologised to me a few more times before I felt a sudden rage fill me and I began throwing things at him and screaming at him to just get out of my flat and out of my life foreve.r"

Amelia held her head in her hands as she sniffed back more tears. "Why did I agree to come here? Why did I think it'll be a good idea to pretend to still be with him? Why?"

"Because you care about him," Lucy said as rubbed her back comfortingly, "as much as you don't want to admit it you do."

"Of course I care about him, how could I not? I..." Amelia said removing her hands from her face. She stopped and shook her head.

"Amelia... do you still love him?" Lucy asked slowly as she stared at her. Amelia turned to face Lucy the tears still in her eyes as she told her in no more than a shaky breath.

"I love him more than anything else in this world. But I can't forgive him, I just can't do it. Why did he have to do it Lucy? I wish so hard that he didn't but..." she took in a deep breath as she sat up straight and she fell into silence.

Lucy could only sit with her and offer comforting words as she thought about how much of a jerk her cousin was and what she was going to do when she got her hands on him.

"Lucy please promise me that you won't tell him that you know," Amelia pleaded with her, "please I don't want you to be angry at him."

"But I am angry at him, he's such an idiot," She faltered at the look in Amelia's eyes, "but I won't say anything."

Amelia gave her a thankful smile before she rubbed her watery eyes again.

"Amelia if you still love him, why do you want to divorce him?"

"Because I was trying to hurt him as much as he hurt me, I know it was petty I really do, but he's under some sort of delusion that I'll just take him back like nothing happened."

"Maybe you can forgive him eventually?" Lucy asked hopefully.

Amelia gave a sigh before she stood up, ignoring Lucy's question because she didn't want to admit to herself that maybe eventually she would do if she carried on being around James, and she knew that that wasn't something she wanted to do.

"I'm going to go wash my face. Then we can go back downstairs."

Lucy nodded as she watched Amelia walk out of the room.

Dinner that night was an awkward affair, Amelia was required to sit next to James and neither of them were talking to each other, which had been noticed by almost everyone around the table although no one wanted to mention anything.

They didn't even look at each other and were just pretending that the other wasn't there. The tension could be felt around the table and Hugo's impromptu triangle solo failed to make them so much as smile, even when Hugo began 'head banging' and had to be dragged away by his father before he damaged something more than his own health.

Smelia spent the rest of the night with Lucy and purposely waited until she knew that James had gone up to bed before she would go up. When she entered the room she could see James sleeping on the floor his back to her. She let out a sigh before she grabbed her things and made her way to the bathroom to get changed.

When she came back into the room she noticed that James hadn't moved from where he was. She placed her things back onto her bag before she crawled into her bed, feeling tears falling from her eyes. She didn't realise just how much ignoring each other would upset her, but she knew she had brought it on herself.


	12. Chapter 12

A/N: I thought I would update this again for you all :D I'm sorry that I haven't updated this story as quickly as I shoudld have, but I hope you can all forgive me.

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"What is wrong?" Fred asked looking at James who was jabbing his fork at the table angrily, "You have been acting like this all day. Have you had an argument with Amelia or something?"

"Something like that," James grumbled as he continued to stab with his fork.

"You're going to hurt yourself or someone else if you carry on with that," Fred snapped as he grabbed the fork, James refused to let go of it and the two were having a tugging war with the fork.

After a couple of minutes of tugging and a cheating kick by Fred into James's shin, Fred gained control of the fork and he hid it next to his plate, James glared at him before he reached forward and attempted to grab for the spoon, Fred quickly snapped that up and James huffed loudly.

"What on earth is going on?" Fred asked James as he shielded all other items on the table from James's grasp.

James shook his head as he slouched back into his seat, he needed to tell someone and he knew it. It was eating him up inside and had been for a while.

He took a breath as he looked around the room to make sure that they were alone. Sure enough they were, he leant forward and whispered to Fred

"I need you to promise me that you will never tell anyone else what I am about to tell you."

Fred leant forward as well as he said, "Have you got her pregnant?"

James scowled at him, "I'm trying to be serious here!" he said leaning back and crossing his arms haughtily, "But if you're not going to listen then..."

"Come on James," Fred said apologetically, James stopped scowling at him, "I'm here for you. You know you can tell me anything I'm your best friend."

"I thought Albus was your best friend," James said his arms still crossed and an eyebrow raised questioningly.

"Oh him!" Fred spat seeming slightly angry, "I'm not talking to him, he's a jerk."

James was surprised, he had seen them quite chummy yesterday whilst they were having dinner but James knew that things could change quite drastically. Yesterday between him and Amelia was a prime example.

"What did he do now?" he asked uncrossing his arms as he prepared to listen to Fred's story as he tried to think of a way to explain exactly what was going on between him and Amelia without him sounding like a complete and utter dick, he was sad to say that there wasn't a way.

Fred waved his hand as he told James, "it's not important. Now what is going on?" he had such a serious look on his face and James knew that for once Fred wasn't going to joke about anything and was actually going to offer his advice if he could give it, James found this incredibly weird but he chose to ignore it.

"The thing going on between me and Amelia is ..." he shifted slightly in his seat as he leant forward and rested his arms on the table as he looked down at his hands, he couldn't bear to look Fred in the eyes as he told him what he had done.

He didn't think he could take the disappointed look again. He shifted again as he coughed slightly, this was harder then he thought it would be, he scratched his head as he kept his eyes on the table. "We're not together anymore."

"Did you break up yesterday?!" Fred cried shocked as his eyes flew open at his cousin's words, but James shook his head.

"We broke up back at the start of the year... because I cheated on her," James closed his eyes as though it pained him to admit it, and it did hurt, it felt like a dagger to his heart, regret instantly filling his head as his mind thought back to that fateful night and the hazy details his brain remembered.

It kept replaying daily in his head; his guilt had made sure of that.

Fred let out a "dude..."

James nodded slowly as he fiddled with his fingernails just for something to do to break the uncomfortableness of this conversation "Yeah" he muttered unsure what else to say

Fred gave a confused frown, "But then if you've broken up how comes she's still here? How comes you two seem like normal?"

"Because I asked her to come to Uncle Ron's party so no one would know what I done. I promised her that I would tell them after the party but then the holiday happened and - I just couldn't face my parents and have them tell me how much of a disappointment I am when I know already."

"James," Fred said leaning forward and resting his hand on James's arm comfortingly, "you're not a disappointment. Sadly these things just happen - What does Amelia think about being here?"

"She hates me," James admitted, "she doesn't want to be around me. She hates having to lie to my family."

Fred looked at James's depressed state for a moment before he spoke agai,n "Are you sure that she's pretending?"

"What?" James asked looking up at him in confusion, "What do you mean?"

"Well you've obviously been pretending to still be together and she's willingly done that for you instead of just saying from the start that you're not together, if she didn't want to lie, she wouldn't have done it."

"Because I begged her not to tell anyone," James told him as Fred removed his hand from James's arm and sat up straight.

"I'm telling you that if she hated you as much as she said she does then she wouldn't have gone along with this, deep down she must still like you."

"She won't," James said with a shake of his head, "she's never going to forgive me."

"But she still feels something for you James, I've seen it. Hell, we've all seen it," Fred said waving his arms around indicating the absent family members, "the way she looks at you is exactly how you were back when you first got together. I know she's not that good an actress James."

James nodded as he fell into thought, telling himself not to get his hopes up just so he could have them destroyed when he reminded himself of what she had said to him earlier.

"But we have a problem Fred," James looked back up at his cousin who looked at him in question, "she's told me that she wants a divorce when we get back."

Fred became stunned again but recovered himself quickly, "you need to fight for her." Fred said as though it was obvious.

"I can't Fred you don't understand the predicament -"

"James do you love her?" Fred said interrupting James's statement. James looked Fred in the eye as he nodded and said,

"More then I could ever love anyone else in this world."

"And do you think that she loves you back?" he asked, James hesitated.

"Sometimes I think that she does."

"Then you need to fight for her, if she's staying here willingly with you maybe she's waiting for you to fight for her." Fred said simply. James fell back into thought as he processed Fred's words.

Sure he had been fighting for her, begged her for forgiveness and she had ignored him. Not giving him a chance to explain himself. But how exactly was he going to make her see how sorry he was if she wasn't willing to talk about it.

Fred watched his cousin who had become deep in thought and stood up slowly knowing that James would be like that for a while yet. He just hoped that he could help them somehow work through their problems.

At first he had been a little disappointed at the fact that James had cheated and hidden the fact from his family for so long but he could see just how scared he was to admit to them what had happened and how with one silly action he had destroyed the one thing that had made him happier then Fred had ever seen him.

Fred knew that James was extremely sorry for what he had done to Amelia and having Fred telling him just how much of an idiot he was wasn't going to help him in anyway, so the only thing he could think of was just to offer his advice.

He walked out of the room and turned back to see his cousin still in the same place as he had been left, Fred let out a sigh at the troubled look on James's face and turned back around, he was going to go to his dad for advice on this he knew he would be able to help James out.

George Weasley watched his nephew from the other side of the kitchen as he sipped on his hot chocolate quietly, James had been sitting with his head in his hands for the past ten minutes without moving and George couldn't be sure if he had fallen asleep.

"Why don't you go and talk to him?" Angelina asked her husband in a quiet whisper as she nodded over at James. George sighed as he whispered back at his wife from behind his cup.

"But I'm not sure what it is I can say to him."

Angelina let out a small sigh as she placed her drink on the side and looked over at James feeling a certain sadness fill her.

Back when he was a little boy and was upset over something Angelina knew that just by giving him a big hug and a bar of Honeydukes finest she would see the cheeky grin fill his face again and he would instantly be cheered up, but she knew that that wouldn't work this time.

This time the matter was bigger than any bar of chocolate Honeydukes could ever produce.

George and Angelina's eyes flickered up as two figures entered the room, Amelia and Lucy had walked into the room and had stopped talking to each other, Amelia and Lucy gave them a warm smile but George and Angelina could tell by Amelia's eyes that she was hiding the fact that she was upset.

James's head rose up off his arms as he looked over at Lucy and Amelia, Lucy gave him a small smile and wave before she walked over to the back door and leaving to go out into the garden with Amelia following.

James's eyes following Amelia as she walked passed him but he looked away once she had walked behind him, George and Angelina watched as Amelia got to the door and hesitated for a second as she looked behind her and saw the back of James's head, they noticed that she had a look of hurt fill her before she shook her head and quickly walked from the room.

Angelina felt her heart fill with sadness as James went back to looking down at the table in a depressed state.

George placed his cup down on the counter next to Angelina's and walked over to his nephew, taking a seat next to him, he clapped him on the back and said, "How are you feeling James?"

James looked up at George and then to Angelina before he let out an annoyed groan as he immediately knew that they knew about him and Amelia. He felt quite annoyed at Fred and the fact that it seemed to only take a mere hour before he starting blabbing to the family James's biggest secret. "Oh great Fred told you."

"Now don't be harsh on Fred," George said defensively, "he came to us in confidence and asked for our advice on how he could help you out in this situation. He won't reveal your secret to anyone else but he thought that maybe I could help you out."

James looked to his uncle for a moment as he nodded slowly before he rose his thumb to his mouth and began chewing on his nails absentmindedly.

"And I'm here to tell you that I know exactly how you feel," he rubbed James's shoulder reassuringly. Angelina sent her husband a hard glare

"Oh do you now? And how do you know how he feels?" she enquired. George felt the colour drain slightly out of his pale face as he saw the dark look in his wife's eyes.

"What I mean was - er no reason - "

He turned to James, "but believe me this is the worst of it, things can only get better from here."

James shook his head, "Things seem pretty sucky right now, and I don't see it getting any better anytime soon."

"You just need to believe in my advice James; I was popular with the ladies I know what I'm talking about."

"And how popular was this?" Angelina snapped, George nudged James in the ribs.

"Pretty popular," he said with a wink before he turned to face his wife and told her seriously and quietly, "but not that popular."

Angelina glared at him for a moment and James saw his Uncle swallow nervously as he said slowly, "I love you."

Angelina rolled her eyes as she turned to James and spoke to him gently, "You've got to make her see how sorry you are James. You won't know until you try and if you don't try before the end of the holiday then you may never get your chance to again and I know you'll regret it forever. Because you have a chance to save your marriage -"

She then turned to George the glare falling back onto her face, "- and you won't have a marriage if you carry on this way." She stood up as George swallowed nervously again and walked out of the room. James turned to look at George who smiled weakly back at him.

Having Amelia avoid him all day was starting to cause him more heartache, as soon as he began walking in her direction she would shoot up and rush off away from him, so often that James gave up. Lucy could only shoot him apologetic looks before she would follow Amelia.

Why was she being so damn stubborn about this all? She was the one who told him that she wanted a divorce, he should be the angry one but now she was the one avoiding him and acting like a child.

"Had another argument?"

James looked around at his brother Albus who had clapped James on the back before walking forwards, his hands going into his trouser pockets as he looked around the garden.

"Yeah, listen I need to talk to you about something," James began; he knew that Albus would be able to help him out a lot more then Fred ever could.

Albus was the smartest person in the family, smarter even then Rose, which no one liked to mention through fear of being turned into a frog by Rose.

But Albus was extremely arrogant and sarcastic which was why people generally never went to him for advice or help, but James for once needed his brother's help.

Albus waved his hand to silence him before he walked away calling, "We'll chat later on ok? I have to rush off."

"But Albus this is important!" James called after him but Albus carried on walking, James let out a frustrated groan, Fred appeared next to him in an instant.

"What's up?" Fred asked him James shot him a glower.

"I'm not talking to you go away!" he snapped angry at Fred for telling Uncle George and Aunt Angelina the secret Fred had promised to keep to himself.

"Oh come on I was going to them for advice, they're not going to say anything to anyone ok? They promised me."

"Yeah sure! Give it a few days and everyone will know what I done. They will know that Amelia and I have broken up," James snapped.

"What is going on here? What do you mean you and Amelia have broken up?" came a voice from behind them. James felt the colour drain from his face and fear filling his veins as he cursed himself in his own head.

He slowly turned around and came face to face with Rose Weasley, her hands were on her hips and she had a stern look on her face as she looked at him. James was instantly reminded of Aunt Hermione.

"Rose you have to promise me that you won't tell anyone."


	13. Chapter 13

James told Rose everything knowing that she wouldn't leave him alone until he had disclosed the whole story. He told her quietly and at the end of the garden so that there wasn't a chance of anyone else overhearing them and finding out for themselves. James didn't want anyone else to know what had happened.

Rose listened quietly as James told her everything and James was thankful for this as it made it easier to rush it out without being interrupted by questions.

What he wasn't thankful for was when he had finished telling her; Rose had whacked him hard around the head and yelled at him for being stupid. After James had recovered from the vicious attack, Rose seemed to calm down considerably and was ready and willing to help him get Amelia to at least listen to James.

Both Rose and James ignored Fred's idea of locking both James and Amelia in the broom shed and refusing to let them out until they had forgiven each other.

So James could only watch as Rose walked away from him with a determined look on her face and mumbling to herself, leaving him with Fred who was still trying to get James to go with his idea.

Picking at her shoes Amelia sighed wearily. Only ten more days to go and then she would be free from this, free from being around James and free from fighting her feelings for him.

Lucy stretched out on the grass beside her and looked up at the sky. The sun was shining brightly above them, but a cool chill was blowing through the garden, making them both thankful that they had brought jumpers to wear.

Amelia stopped picking at her shoes and instead contented herself with looking around the garden; Victoire and Teddy were sitting nearby talking to each other in quiet voices as they smiled at each other, holding each other's hands tightly.

Amelia smiled before she turned to look back at Lucy who was also watching Victoire and Teddy.

"They're sickening aren't they?" Lucy said jokingly turning back to look at Amelia with a smile on her face. Amelia nodded as she sighed, her and James used to be like that. "Get a room!" Lucy called out causing Victoire and Teddy to turn and look at her.

"You're just jealous," Teddy told her with a laugh, "Just because your boyfriend has to work."

"Yeah well don't start rubbing your love in my face," Lucy laughed, Victoire smiled over at her cousin before she stood up and grabbed for Teddy's hand, they both walked back into the house.

"Hey Rose," Lucy called as she saw the red head walk over to them a letter in her hand and a look of deep concentration on her face.

"What's up?" Amelia looked up at Rose in concern as Rose came to a stop next to them.

"Oh nothing much just sending a letter to Hank, he wrote to me the other day and I've only just got round to replying to it," She told them as she smiled at them warmly, the deep concentration falling from her face.

"Still haven't forgiven him then for not getting the time off of work?" Lucy asked as she stood up from where she sat on the grass, brushing the back of her trousers down. Amelia followed suit.

"I can't stay mad at him. It wasn't his fault that it happened, as he didn't know about the holiday in time. But it's ok because I forgive him," Rose turned to look at Amelia who rose an eyebrow back at her. "You agree don't you Amelia? That there's nothing so big that it can't be forgiven."

"It depends what it is I suppose," Amelia said slowly wondering why Rose had asked her that and why she was talking quite slowly and obviously. "But sometimes things happen that you can't forgive."

"Oh I don't think that there is anything Hank would do that I wouldn't forgive him for. You feel the same way about Jeff don't you Lucy?" This time the red head turned to look at Lucy, who was frowning in confusion.

Lucy shot Amelia a look, "Err - I suppose."

"Then we're in agreement that we should just all forgive and forget. Well I should go post this, I'll catch you two at dinner," And with those words she left them standing there, both with looks of confusion on their faces.

"What was she on about?" Amelia asked jerking her thumb in Rose's direction, Lucy gave a shrug.

"I have absolutely no idea. I forgot how weird she and her brother were," Lucy said with a shake of her head as her and Amelia walked slowly over to the house, each of them deciding to get themselves a drink.

As they made their way over to the house their path was blocked by Fred who was running over to them hysterically waving his arms around to stop them in their tracks.

"Lucy, Lucy, Lucy!" he wheezed as he stopped his running and bent over to catch his breath, his hands on his knees as he wheezed and coughed, sweat running down his face which caused Amelia and Lucy to look at him in disgust. "I... need... to... talk to... you. Important."

Lucy turned to look at Amelia who carried on walking, telling Lucy that she would get them some drinks and meet her back out in the garden in a few minutes.

Before giving Lucy a chance to reply Fred had grabbed her arm and steered her further down the garden, dropping her arm when he deemed them far enough away from prying eyes and nosey cousins. He gazed around quickly making sure that no one was hiding behind any of the trees or plants.

"What is it Fred?" Lucy asked her hands on her hips. Fred walked over to her and said in a low whisper.

"I need your advice," Lucy shook her head as she backed away from him, her finger pointing at him as an exasperated look filled her face.

"Oh no!" she warned him "I am not looking at that thing again. I don't care what colour it has turned this time. You should go to St Mungo's, it looked infected and I swear it was growing some sort of fur. That thing gave me nightmares for weeks."

Fred quickly shook his head at her "Oh no, no, no! It's nothing to do with that," he explained to her, "That fell off a few months ago. I wanted your advice on -" he looked around again before whispering, "James and Amelia."

"What about them?" Lucy asked suddenly suspicious, her eyes narrowing at him. He wouldn't know about them would he? Surely James couldn't trust him enough to tell him could he? Hell – no one trusted Fred enough.

"You know that hurt! You didn't have to say that to my face." Fred said sternly his arms crossing as Lucy realised that she had said the last part out loud.

"Oh come off it, you know you are the worst secret keeper in this family." Lucy told him, not feeling at all sorry for what she said about her cousin. Fred had to admit that it was true, but still his feelings were hurt.

"I am not! Besides this isn't helping because I need your advice," Fred wailed grabbing Lucy's arm and shaking her, she tried to shove him off as she protested at him. "I know you know about Amelia and James - Don't give me that look, Amelia has obviously told you about it. You have been inseparable and you have been helping her to avoid James."

"I suppose I have been. But there's nothing we can do about it is there? They are not going to be getting back together," Lucy managed to say after Fred had stopped shaking her.

"Well not on their own, I reckon they'll need help -" Fred suggested to Lucy who was looking deep in thought "-and I think we'll be the ones able to help them get back together."

Fred's face lit up as Lucy looked down at her feet as she shrugged.

"But how exactly are we able to get them together?" she asked.

"It's not like we can just lock them both in the broom shed and refuse to let them out until they talk to each other again is it?" Fred said jokingly before Lucy quickly whipped her head up and looked at Fred as though he was a genius.

"That is the best idea I've ever heard!" She cried as she jumped up and down excitedly, she grabbed Fred's arm and they both ran over to the broom shed and pulled open the door so they could look in, there were only a few rakes, a few dusty boxes and what they recognised as a lawnmower in there, other than that enough room for two people to stand in. "Now the question is how are we going to do it?"

"Oh Lucy there you are I've got your drink," came Amelia's voice as she came over to Lucy and Fred who had both taken a step back from the shed so Amelia didn't get suspicious.

Amelia handed Lucy her drink, telling Lucy that she had already had hers. Fred's face lit up as he noticed that Amelia had her back to the open door, he shot a look at Lucy who was smiling at him, and Amelia smiled unsure what was going on. It was now that James made his move and before he could change his mind he spoke up.

"Amelia your shoelace is undone," he blurted out loudly, Amelia looked down at her shoes at his words and frowned slightly.

"But my shoes don't have any -" she let out a yell of surprise as Fred lunged forward and knocked Amelia into the shed; he quickly closed the door and locked it.

"Ok that's one down!" Fred told Lucy as he ignored Amelia's yells from behind the door and her fist pounding on it. "Now to get James."

They didn't have to wait long before they heard, "Hey guys have you seen..."

Lucy and Fred's faces lit up.

James was soon shoved into the shed after Amelia who had to dive onto the lawnmower to escape James's falling form, Lucy and Fred shut the door quickly before Amelia had a chance to make her way over to it.

"Let me out!" Amelia cried, managing to get to the door, her fist pounding on the wooden panel as she tried in vain to get them to open the door.

"Why don't we use our wands?" James suggested as he rubbed the back of his head, when he had been viciously shoved into the shed he had fallen to the floor and hit his head.

"Accio wands!" Lucy cried as she leant in through the tiny window and waved her wand, Amelia and James could only watch in horror as their wands were taken by Lucy, who shut the window after she had taken their wands.

Amelia let out a shout before pounding on the door, her hand hurting slightly. "Open the door!"

"Not before you two talk to each other." Lucy's voice was heard from in the other side of the door. Amelia let out a groan before she turned around and made her way over to the lawnmower, dusting it off with her sleeve before sitting down on it with a scowl on her face.

James was still rubbing his head and seemed to be checking if he was bleeding or not, he leant back on the few boxes that were stacked haphazardly by the side.

"Well it appears that we're locked in this shed," James said wincing as his fingers ran over a sore patch of his head.

"No shit, you should be an Auror!" Amelia muttered, scuffing her shoe on the floor. James ignored her response resisting the urge to roll his eyes at her.

There were a few moments of silence before Amelia let out a groan of annoyance at herself. "I can't believe I fell for Fred's stupid idea! I don't even have shoelaces." She pointed down at her shoes and James could see that they were slip on shoes.

"At least you weren't manhandled. He physically grabbed me and just threw me in; I knew I should have been suspicious when I saw him hanging around outside the shed! I am going to hurt him when I get out of here," James cried outraged at his cousin, what good was this shed going to do? He'd have more luck with whatever plan Rose had.

"Why should you have been suspicious?" Amelia asked him, the scowl still on her face as she thought of how she was going to hurt Fred and Lucy when she got out of there.

James sighed before saying, "He was just mentioning something about shoving me and you into a shed to talk."

Amelia nodded before they become silent again. There were sounds of shoes scuffing and James letting out a small cough before they spoke.

"I take it Fred knows then?" Amelia asked as she shifted around trying to get more comfortable, James nodded.

"I needed someone to talk to. " He admitted.

"That's understandable, Lucy knows." Amelia told him. James nodded he already knew that she must have found out.

"I guessed that when she overheard us talking."

Amelia gave a sigh as she looked up at James who was watching her intently, she felt her stomach jolt before she took a deep breath and looked down at her shoes again.

"People are starting to realise about us James, is it worth keeping up this lie?" She asked him.

"I think it is, if not just for me and you saving face, but we should at least do it for the rest of the family, letting them have a good holiday. This is the only time I can think of that the whole family has managed to get the time off of work apart from Christmas."

"I agree with you," Amelia admitted "I don't want to be the reason their holiday is ruined."

"So we can go back to not wanting to hurt each other?" James asked her softly.

"I can try to." Amelia replied, she didn't want to fight with him anymore during this holiday, it'll only make it a lot worse for them both.

"Thank you. For everything Amelia, for coming here, for when - "

"Stop James," Amelia interrupted holding up a hand to stop him. "Please …just…"

"Stopping," James told her, holding his hands up in defence. Amelia could see that there was a hint of a smile on his face.

"Now that we've agreed to talk to each other civilly shall we get out of here?" Amelia asked.

"Yeah that might be a good idea; I think I just saw a mouse," James told her, moving away from the boxes as he looked behind the lawnmower that Amelia was sitting on.

Amelia shuddered slightly before standing up and walking over to the door, knocking on it for Fred or Lucy.

"Come on guys let us out."

There was silence. Amelia turned to look at James who had come to stand next to her. He rapped on the door with his knuckles and called loudly. "Fred open the door! We've talked!"

There was more silence.

"You don't think they've gone inside do you?" Amelia asked James.

"Nah he won't be that stupid."

"It's Fred; of course he'll be that stupid." James stated as if it was obvious, Amelia had to agree with him.

"But what about Lucy?" She asked, ignoring the close contact that she had with her husband.

"She might have gone in as well" James told her, he took a few steps backwards as if he had just realised how close they were to each other.

"Damn my cousins!" James groaned, turning to look around the room.

"What are we going to do now?" Amelia asked him, also looking around the room. They both looked up at the window at the same time, knowing that neither of them would fit out of it as it was too small. James gave a shrug, seeming to come to the conclusion that they might be staying in the shed for quite a while.

Amelia looked around her and spotted the rakes. "Can you think of anything to do with the rakes?"

"Apart from attacking Fred with them?" he laughed, Amelia felt herself smiling at his comment before she went to grab one, passing it to James who used it to jab at the door. Nothing happened.

James let out a groan before chucking the rake back into the corner, but the force of his throw caused it to hit the small window and smash the glass outwards. Amelia let out a scream as James jumped wildly.

"Careful you great oaf! You could have hurt me!" Amelia told him angrily.

"Sorry," James told her honestly, "I didn't realise I threw it that hard."

The door was wrenched open shortly after his words and the sunlight burst into the room, causing the two to shield their eyes from it.

"And should I ask what you two are doing in here?" came Bill's voice, the two rushed out of the shed quickly and thanked Bill for getting them out. Bill chuckled before shaking his head at them.

"I'm not even going to ask what you were doing with the rakes," He laughed again before walking away from them. "I expected something like that from Albus." They heard him mutter under his breath.

They both laughed as they stood outside the shed, making sure they weren't within shoving distance of the door again.

"Now where is Fred?" James asked looking around the garden.

Fred had his arm in a makeshift sling he had made from a towel he had found in the bathroom. James had found him shortly after their Uncle had saved him from the shed, and punched him so hard in the arm it was beginning to bruise. But it was worth it if James and Amelia were at least talking to each other again.

He chose to sit on the other side of the table, away from both James and Amelia's reach. He noticed with annoyance that Lucy had no such wound even though she had taken their wands; he thought that was completely unfair.

He was just thinking about how much pain James would be in if he threw his spoon at him when Louis spoke up from next to him.

"When is dinner going to start?" Louis groaned loudly, laying his head down on the table as everyone waited for the food to be brought to it.

"When everyone has arrived Louis." Angelina told him as she helped Molly bring over the jugs of pumpkin juice to the table.

"Who are we waiting for?" Albus asked looking around the numerous heads that were sitting around the spacious table, everyone seemed to be there.

"Your dad and Bill." Angelina told him, placing the jug in front of Albus, who's face had lit up at her words. He turned to face all of his cousins (apart from Louis, Dom and Victoire who all let out a small groan) and they each had the same excited look on their faces as they heard Angelina's last words.

"Ok everyone calm down," Hermione's voice could be heard as the excited mutters began; "There's food on the table."

Percy and George each had the sense to hide under the table as footsteps could be heard coming towards the room. Ron had pushed his chair back towards the wall, so he wasn't in the way of his soon to be running nieces and nephews. The others all began yelling at them to calm down or at Bill to not come into the room.

But none of either group heard them, the door opened and there was a scuffle around the table as various people jumped up from their seats, some people climbing over the table, kicking over the fresh jugs of juice, knocking one across the table. Harry was the first to walk in; he noticed with a 'manly' scream that a lot of people were running towards him so was quick to dive out of the way.

Bill didn't have a chance to react with the same reflexes with Harry as he walked into the room. The only thing he had the chance to do was protect his head, before he fell to the floor.

He knew he should have helped his mum prepare dinner so he would have been here before the others.


	14. Chapter 14

"What's going on?" Roxanne mumbled rubbing her eyes tiredly as she strolled into the front room of the house the adults were staying in.

The others shrugged as they sat on sofas, the floor, and the table. Everyone was bunched up next to each other not leaving much room for stretching, moving or breathing without hurting someone.

"Ow!" Amelia cried as Albus stretched his arms out and caught her in the face with his hand, she rubbed her face with one hand before she shoved him roughly with the other one, sending Albus falling into Dominique who whirled around and shoved Albus back.

"What's your problem Al?" she cried in annoyance. Everyone was tired and extremely moody from having been woken up by Bill and Fleur who told them that there was some important news that everyone needed to know.

"It's nine in the morning!" Molly junior cried as she leant her head on Louis's shoulders and closed her eyes. "Why do we need to get up so early whilst we're on holiday?"

"I'll have you know that most of us have been awake since six," Harry told the group as he shifted slightly on the sofa, Ginny was sitting on his lap because Ron was taking up two seats on the sofa whilst he lay down.

"That's because you're old!" Lucy cried as she leant on Louis's other shoulder. Louis was currently leaning backwards, his head on Arthur's knees as he sat on the floor in front of his Granddad. Louis was beginning to snore loudly, matching Arthur who was taking his morning nap.

"Is everyone here?" Bill asked cheerily as he looked around the room at his family, half of them were disgruntled and glaring at him. Roxanne had found a seat on the floor next to her brother who looked like he was struggling to keep his eyes open.

"Good good," he beamed at them, most of them glared in response. "I bet you're wondering why we've asked you all down here. Well me and Fleur have been told the best news. And we just couldn't be happier - "

"Will you get to the point?" Lily called sleepily, "Some of us have sleep to catch on."

"No amount of beauty sleep will make you look better Lily so there's no point in you even trying," Albus shot back at Lily, who let out a yell of anger before throwing herself at her brother and over James, Amelia and Hugo who were startled by her action. There were yells of pain and unhappiness as Lily struggled over her cousin, brother and sister in law to get to Albus, who was leaning on Dom to get away from Lily.

"That's enough you two!" Ginny snapped causing Lily to calm down and Albus to smirk at her. Lily went back to where she was sitting with a huff as James, Amelia and Hugo rubbed their arms and legs, sure that bruises would begin appearing.

"As I was saying," Bill carried on, quite used to his nieces and nephews behaviour by now, "We have some news. Victoire and Teddy?" he asked looking over at the two who stood up and grinned at each other before looking out at the family who were all watching them carefully.

Louis and Arthur had woken up by now due to Molly senior hitting them on the head with her daily prophet and Molly junior had opened her eyes to look up at Victoire and Teddy.

"We're going to be having a baby," they told them together.

It took the family a few seconds to react in their sleep filled state but all at once they all scrambled to their feet and ran forward, knocking over things in their path as they all tried to get to Teddy and Victoire, including Charlie who stumbled to the floor and had to be helped up by Audrey. A group hug formed as some people began screaming in happiness, including all of the girls and Hugo.

After they had all recovered and everyone moved away from Victoire in fear of hurting the unborn baby they all clambered around Teddy who was yelling at them to stop hurting him although he had a smile on his face the whole time.

"You know what this calls for don't you?" Hugo called to the family, "Celebratory drinks down the pub!"

"That's the best plan you've ever had Hugo!" Albus cried moving away from the group still hugging Teddy and throwing an arm around Hugo as they began walking to the door. "Let us all get dressed and meet down here in about two hours, that way Nan can make us some lunch before we go!"

The younger ones all agreed heartily as they let go of Teddy and all ran for the door, shouting congratulations as they passed them. All of them excited to get out of the house and drink, all tiredness forgotten in their haste to be the first one dressed and down.

"Excited bunch aren't they?" Teddy said to the remaining adults who were all shaking their heads at their offspring, wondering if they were ever going to be normal. They stayed where they were, all still congratulating Teddy and Victoire and also Bill and Fleur who were beaming proudly.

"I'll make a special brunch for us all!" Molly senior cried as she wiped the tears from her eyes and gave both Victoire and Teddy a kiss on the cheek.

"That would be lovely mum," Angelina said as she walked forward and congratulated Teddy and Victoire as well. "I'll be glad to help you prepare it."

"Well someone should go supervise them at the pub," Ginny stated and as Harry was just about to tell her that they would be fine as they're adults, Ron cut in.

"Me and Harry will go supervise them!" he cried, Harry took a deep breath and turned to face Ron who was smiling at him.

"Well I kind of wanted to -" he began but one look at Ron and he knew that he wouldn't be getting out of going with him "Fine. Me and Ron will go."

As the group all walked up to the pub after they all had some lunch, Harry couldn't decide who was more excited, the kids or Ron; who seemed to be bouncing around in excitement and pushing everyone playfully out of his way as he 'lead' the way.

Harry felt himself sigh as he watched the others in front of him, all acting immature and yelling loudly and he was regretting Ron's decision for making him go, knowing that he was going to be the sole responsible one in the group.

They pushed their way into the pub, the regulars staring at the fourteen of them as they made their way to the back of the pub and found two tables with enough room for them to sit together if they pulled them together.

Harry looked over at the others as they sat down and pulled out their money, the girls deciding to get a few bottles of wine between them and the boys deciding to buy themselves shots and beer, or just anything that they could get their hands on.

Harry suggested to everyone that they have something to eat from the food menu that was laying on their tables but they all chose to ignore him, instead giving money to certain people who were going up to the bar and getting 'rounds' in.

Harry let out a sigh as he sank in his seat and looked around at everyone, some of them his children and one of them his best friend, knowing that it was going to be a long day.

"Come on dad lighten up!" Albus cried as he came back over to the table carrying a tray of drinks for the men of the group to drink. He handed out the drinks as he sat down and handed everyone a shot of something that was vivid red in colour. Harry looked at it sceptically as his son handed it to him; he watched as everyone else downed their shot and grimaced at the after taste.

Harry downed his own drink quickly thinking that it would be a lot more fun if he drank something as well.

Three hours later Harry knew that he had made the right decision in coming, he had slowed everyone down on their drinking so between them they only had a few bottles of beer and a few shots each, and the girls had only had a few bottles of wine between them.

He watched as his two sons were laughing at Hugo who was trying to balance quite a few food menu's together to try and make a pyramid as Fred and Louis began adding drinks together in a bigger glass and daring Ron to drink it with loud laughs, he looked in slight horror as Ron drank whatever concoction it was that Fred and Louis had made.

The girls were gossiping together, loud giggles filling the air as they looked around the bar at the people sitting around them, catching the eyes of a few of the men. Harry made a mental note to look out for all of them and make sure no one felt the need to converse with any of these people.

Ron cheered loudly as he finished his drink and banged the glass on the table, Fred and Louis also cheered and clapped their uncle on the back. Hugo's pyramid fell down causing Hugo to become sad for a few moments before Lily passed him a glass of white wine and he quickly became happy again as he drank it a lot quicker then he should have.

"Let's get another drink!" James cried as he stood up and climbed over his brother to get out from behind the table, Albus ignored him as he began to have a serious conversation with Fred. James walked over to the women's table and stood next to Lucy who was currently arm wrestling with Dominique, and losing.

"Would any of you ladies care to come with me to the bar?" he said looking at Amelia and winking at her. Amelia giggled back at him as she stood up and Molly moved so she could get around her.

"I'll love to," Amelia told him and James gave her a warm smile. Lucy, Fred and Rose exchanged hopeful glances as James and Amelia walked over to the bar. Fred quickly stood up he mouthed to Lucy and Rose 'I have a plan' before he rushed over to the bar.

The two women watched as Fred stood next to Amelia and James who were standing close to each other their heads together as they seemed to be in a conversation with each other, Amelia had placed her hand on James's arm and was leaning towards him a smile filling her face at what James was saying to her.

Fred edged towards them until he was standing directly behind James; he gave a quick glance at the couple before he lost his balance and toppled into James, who fell forwards onto Amelia. Everyone steadied themselves and stood straight, Fred held his hands up to the guy standing a few meters away from him and said loudly, "Alright mate, calm down there's no need to shove."

The guy looked quite confused and turned away from Fred who turned back around to look at James prepared to offer him and Amelia his apologies when he stopped and a smile spread across his face.

After James had fallen onto Amelia he had grabbed hold of her waist to steady himself and her, when they stood up straight they noticed with hitched breaths just how close they had got to each other, they could only stare at each other for a few moments neither of them wanting to move away from the closeness.

Amelia felt an internal struggle fill her as she thought about how much she wanted to close the gap between them, her eyes flickered down to his lips as she realised just how much she had missed this, the closeness of him, the feel of his breath on her face, the feel of his lips on her.

Her mind was screaming at her to not do what she was about to do but she ignored it, ignored how much it would pain her to do this, how much she would regret it when she was perfectly sober, but she just couldn't resist him anymore. She moved forward and pressed her lips to his as she wrapped her arms around his neck. James froze in shock at her action before he gave in and kissed her back.

Fred punched the air in what could only be described as celebratory as he walked back over to where he had been sitting, making sure to request a high five from Lucy and Rose as he passed them, their first plan had failed but this one had surprisingly worked, now they just had to sit back and wait for James and Amelia to get back together. 'Absolutely fool proof,' Fred thought as he grabbed for Albus' drink and downing it, slamming the glass on the table after he had finished.

"Oh get a room!" Molly yelled loudly as everyone else had spotted James and Amelia kissing at the bar and let out yells as they saw the drinks on the bar waiting to be brought over to them. Amelia and James pulled away from each other looking at each other for a moment as Amelia raised her hand to her lips, the realisation of what she had done filling her face as she grabbed the two bottles of wine and moving away from James as she rushed back to the table.

James stared in disbelief as he watched Amelia sit down and pour herself a glass of wine before she drunk it quickly, her hands shaking and her eyes flickering over to James before looking away and drawing Dominique into a conversation.

James grabbed the tray of drinks for the boys before he walked back over to them and sat down dishing out the drinks as he sat in the seat next to Albus turning to look quickly at Amelia who was glancing back at him, neither of them knowing how that had just happened. James tried to hide his smirk as he grabbed for his drink and leaned forward to talk to his father who was trying to stop Ron from charming the drink away from Hugo who was trying to get out of his father's reach and finish his drink quickly.

Fred, Lucy and Rose exchanged looks knowing that their plan may not have gone to plan but was still having the desired effect as James and Amelia couldn't go a few minutes without looking or staring at each other, all they needed now was more alcohol and more chances to give them alone time.

"Excuse me please," Albus said as he elbowed his way out of his seat at the table, pushing Louis out of his way and into the grip of Molly and Lily who held him down and yelled out, "Grab me my bag! I have the perfect thing to put on him."

Albus walked over to the bar and leant on it as he winked at the girl standing next to him, "Hey good looking," he said, causing the girl to look at him in slight horror and repulsion as she backed away from him. Albus raised an eyebrow but didn't let her reaction affect him in any way as he turned around and faced the other way to the girl standing on his other side.

She was staggering slightly and laughing with her friend and Albus noticed with a smile that she was drunk. "Why hello there," he said taking her hand and kissing it the girl let out a giggle. "What brings you two girls to a place like this?"

"Oh it's my friend's birthday," The staggering girl said pointing to her friend who flashed her birthday girl badge at him. Albus smiled as he raised an eyebrow seductively at her as he suggested that he should give her a birthday kiss. But before he could get near her someone grabbed him from behind and pulled him back. The girls looked confused and Albus whirled around quickly to see Roxanne was standing behind him with tears in her eyes.

"Roxanne... what?" Albus began but he was met with a slap to the face, he tottered on the spot as his hand flew to his face and rubbed it, it was stinging and had turned red.

"How could you!" Roxanne seethed pointing at Albus, "after everything that we've been through, I have to find you here talking to these girls! Didn't what we had mean anything to you?"

Albus stared at her a fearful look in his eyes as he glanced back at the girls who were watching Roxanne crying in front of them, neither of them knowing what was going on.

"I thought that I was your one and only! First you ran off with my brother... And now you've gone for these! You make me sick Albus! SICK!" she shoved him roughly and stormed back over to the table. Albus watched her walk off before turning back to face the girls and opening his mouth to speak to them but they too slapped him and staggered away muttering about how he made them sick. Albus turned back to face Roxanne seeing her high fiving Amelia and Charlie.

Albus stormed over to the table as he fumed angrily. "Would someone care to tell me what that was all about?" he asked them, "and also what in the name of Merlin's pants are you doing here Uncle Charlie?"

"I gave the others the slip," Charlie said with a shrug as he stretched out in his seat and reached for Ron's drink, claiming it as his own and taking a long drink of it. "You have no idea how boring that meal was -" he told them with a shake of his head before looking down at the drink a look of disgust on his face, "- and apparently someone needs to educate you all in what's an appropriate drink to have," he stood up and clicked his fingers causing the barmaid to turn around and face him.

"Would you be so kind as to bring me two bottles of your strongest Firewhiskey and put it on Harry Potter's tab!" Charlie yelled winking at Harry, who rolled his eyes before smiling at his brother in law.

"He doesn't have a tab," the barmaid told him loudly back as she grabbed two bottles.

"Well he'll be starting one," Charlie told her before sitting down and putting his arm around his brother Ron who was smiling goofily around at everyone.

"You still haven't explained what on earth happened over there!" Albus cried as the barmaid brought the Firewhiskeys over and placed them in front of Charlie as well as enough glasses for everyone sitting around the table.

"Remember back when you ruined my chances of taking those lovely women home the other day by claiming that I still wet the bed?" Charlie asked, the barmaid looked up at Charlie slight disgust on her face, "don't worry sweetheart it was a lie," the barmaid nodded before she backed up and walked back over to the bar. "Well this is my revenge."

"By getting my cousin to pretend I cheated on her with her own brother?" Albus asked taking a seat next to his father and glaring at his Uncle.

"Hey it got those girls away from you didn't it? Plus don't you already have a girlfriend?" Charlie asked his nephew as he poured out drinks for everyone.

"Yeah what's your point?" Albus stated as he sat down next to Charlie and grabbed for the glass. "She's making her way over here in the next few days, I've got to amuse myself somehow."

Charlie rolled his eyes at Albus before handing out the drinks.

"Everyone take a drink. I'm going to show you how to get drunk properly," and before Harry could protest Charlie's suggestion, everyone had taken their drink and downed it in one, each of them pulling faces as it burned on the way down.

Harry let out a sigh as he too drank his drink, feeling the familiar burn that you never got used to burn its way down his throat and into his stomach. Charlie was the party animal of the family and the younger ones really loved him, maybe it was a good thing that Harry was here to keep an eye on everyone.

"I feel so ill!" Louis cried as he walked outside of the pub, the rest of his family in tow. Louis had clutched hold of his stomach and was crouching over slightly, "I knew I shouldn't have eaten that packet of crisps that Uncle Charlie gave me; I think they're repeating on me."

"Oh yeah it has nothing to do with the pints and shots you drank," Amelia slurred as she walked next to him, James following and throwing an arm around her shoulders, Amelia leaned into him.

"Well you look great!" Fred said loudly as he stumbled on the other side of Louis and having to be held up by Dominique who although had drunk most of the wine was able to walk straight and wasn't slurring her words. Fred blew Louis a kiss and Louis frowned at him.

"It's not my fault Lily and Lucy pinned me down whilst Molly put make up on me is it?" Louis cried as he turned to point at Lily and Lucy who were following them.

"We did no such thing!" Lily told him heatedly, "besides, you were the one who told me to use the blue eye shadow because it complimented your skin tone."

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" Louis cried as he threw his arms up in the air.

"Where are the others?" Molly asked turning around and seeing that everyone was walking behind them. Charlie was carrying Hugo up the path over his shoulders, he was completely drunk as was almost everyone else in the group, Harry was still the one who had to supervise them so didn't drink anymore after the Firewhiskey and he was now currently dragging Ron along the path, struggling to keep both him and Ron steady.

"You know what Harry?" Ron cried loudly his words slurring badly as he threw his arm around Harry's shoulder, Harry winced as a stench of alcohol hit him. "If you were a girl, or I was a girl or I found you remotely attractive in the slightest ... or if you were half as attractive as me. Then we could work, you and me!" he pointed between them both as he squinted slightly.

"That's nice to know Ron," Harry admitted, used to Ron's declaration of love for him that seemed to happen more often then he cared to mention. "But I'm afraid to tell you that I love your sister."

"What did you say about my sister?" Ron demanded throwing his arm from Harry's shoulder and standing angrily on the spot, wobbling slightly as he glared at Harry, fist clenched in front of him.

Harry tutted and rolled his eyes at Ron's behaviour. "I said that I loved your sister."

Ron walked forward with an "Oh well that's ok then! Because you should keep her she's lovely! And wears very nice clothes and her hair is soft."

"Ron you know you're talking about your sister don't you?" Harry asked putting Ron's arm back around his shoulders so he could keep him upright.

"Oh bugger, I really shouldn't be saying these things should I?" he asked.

"No Ron, but it's ok because we're going to take you home and put you to bed," Harry told him as he caught up with Charlie who had stopped his walk, Hugo still unconscious and dangling from Charlie's shoulder, "and you and Hugo can sleep this all off," Ron nodded as he walked along with them.

James and Amelia had stopped their walk and were currently bickering with each other, Fred and Lucy had stopped their walk and held back in case they needed to step in and intervene, both annoyed that their plan hadn't worked and they seemed to have been put back to square one. Alcohol didn't seem to be a good idea anymore.

"You can't keep avoiding this Amelia; we need to have this talk. We kissed each other you can't admit that that wasn't anything?" James told her loudly, Fred and Lucy were glad that everyone else had walked off ahead as James and Amelia didn't seem to care who was able to hear them.

"What do you want me to say James?" Amelia cried as she staggered backwards slightly, angrily pointing at him, "Do you want me to say that I still love you? Want me to say that I can't stop thinking about you, that I can't stop wishing that we were back to what we were?"

"Why can't you admit to what we have Amelia? What are you so scared of?" James shot back.

"I'm scared of this James. I'm scared that I'm letting my guard down by letting you in because I swore that I would never let myself think about you again. I'm scared of how you're making me feel and I'm scared of how I know that I will never find anyone else in this world that I love as much as I love you. I'm scared of what's going on between us and being this close to you and I don't think I'm strong enough to push you away anymore."

She took a deep breath and carried on ignoring James who was staring at her and opening his mouth to speak to her, and trying to ignore Fred and Lucy who had began walking over to them from the other side of the street after noticing that James and Amelia weren't following them anymore.

"And I'm terrified that letting you go was a mistake but I'm even more terrified that taking you back would be a worse one. And I am struggling with letting myself fall back in love with you and it scares me to know that I probably never have and never will fall out of love with you ... so that James is what I am scared of!" she pushed him roughly with her hand and James looked down at it, his head fuzzy from the copious amounts of alcohol he had consumed.

"You are brave Amelia," James slurred as he grabbed hold of her hand and looked into her eyes, Amelia looked down and was struggling not to cry, Fred and Lucy had stopped their walk and was watching from afar but Amelia had forgotten that they were there. "You have coped with this much and you've been able to get through it... And I ... I'm sorry for what I've put you through and it kills me inside to know I've hurt you this bad. But you've never let anything get you down ..."

Amelia looked up at James as her eyes swam with tears they stared at each other for a moment, Amelia tried to shake her head to stop it from spinning but it just made it worse. James brought his hand up to her face to stop her shaking it and pulled her forward, placing a small kiss on her lips before he pulled away. Amelia almost pulled him back to her, "Thank you for everything you've done for me," he told her.

"You're welcome," Amelia said softly, James let out a low breath before he turned around his hand still holding hers and walking over to Fred and Lucy.

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A/N- So how are you all liking the story so far? Let me know :D


	15. Chapter 15

A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed so far, I love each and every one of you :D And to answer a question asked in a review, James works with Dragons, not sure if I've mentioned it yet? But yeah :D Let me know what you think of this chapter!

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The front room of the adult's house was in disarray, furniture had been moved around the room and people were seen lying around the floor. Snores filled the air and most of the occupants of the room had huddled together, the younger ones had all decided after Charlie had put Hugo in his bed and Harry had taken Ron and shoved him into his own room before going back to where he and Ginny were sleeping, that they were going off in search for more alcohol which was hidden in the front room of the adults house.

So after waking up Hugo they all made their way over to the house, as quietly as they could. They didn't even notice that everyone had gone to sleep which meant that they had been down the pub for the entirety of the day and night, not that it bothered them in the slightest knowing this. But they never managed to find the alcohol in their drunken states and had just ended up falling asleep wherever they had fallen.

Amelia woke up slowly, her head feeling like a dragon had been stomping on it and her throat felt like she had breathed in fire. She let out a groan as she hugged whatever it was she had fallen asleep with tighter to her. She looked down and saw with much confusion that whatever it was had toes. She let go of it and sat up slowly, feeling sickness fill through her and her vision blurring slightly as the room felt like it was spinning slowly. She saw that the thing she had been hugging was Lucy's feet.

She squinted at the light in the room letting her eyes get used to it as she looked around the room slowly, seeing where the others were. She spotted James who was fast asleep laying on top of Fred's back; Fred was passed out on the floor spread eagled. Albus was lying on top of the coffee table, his shirt was off and Amelia spotted it in the fireplace half burnt. Hugo had somehow crawled under the coffee table and was holding onto the legs of it.

Louis and Molly had taken a sofa each and were sleeping on them soundly, Louis's face still covered in make up only this time more smudged then before. Dom was laying half on the chair and half on the floor as though she had fallen off of the chair during the night, Roxanne was sitting in the same chair crushing Dom's feet, not that she had noticed, and Rose and Lily were curled up in front of the open door, completely in the way.

It took Amelia all of her strength to stand up slowly from her place on the floor, her sickness filling through her as she rubbed her back, reminding herself to never fall asleep on the floor again.

"Ah one of them is awake."

Amelia turned around to see Hermione was standing at the door with two cups of tea in her hand, Amelia knew that one of them was for Ron.

"Yeah," Amelia groaned as she rubbed her head, still feeling like it was being trampled on, "How's Uncle Ron doing?" she asked.

Hermione had a small smile on her lips as she answered, "Oh he's ok, but I haven't woken him up yet. That's when the fun starts."

Amelia nodded slowly before Hermione placed the cups on the side and grabbed for her wand, "Now I don't think the others will be happy when they find out where everyone had passed out, so you all need to go back to your house. Cover your ears dear this is going to be loud." Amelia done as she was told and covered her ears as she stared at Hermione slightly perplexed. Hermione waved her wand and a loud noise suddenly filled the room like a hundred bells were going off at the same time.

Everyone let out yells of shock and jumped from the positions, before groans were heard and mumbles of sickness. Hermione waved her wand again to stop the noise before she placed it back in her pocket and picked up the two cups again.

"I'll leave you all to go back to your own rooms," she said trying to hide her smile as she left the room.

"That woman is evil!" Louis groaned as he got up off of the sofa and stood up, covering his eyes as he slowly stumbled his way over to the door.

"Just like you," Albus stated as he got off of the table and looked around the room for his shirt before spotting it in the fire and looking down at it in horror, "You burnt my favourite shirt!"

"It was hideous I was doing you a favour." Louis told him, Albus glared at him before he too walked from the room. Amelia stayed where she was, not sure she had the strength or will power to move from where she was standing as everyone shuffled slowly passed her, each of them nursing their hangovers, all apart from Dominique who seemed quite happy for this time in the morning, she was either still drunk or unaffected by the alcohol.

"Come on lets go," James said softly as he held onto his head, wincing with each step he took as it seemed to intensify the pounding in his head. He grabbed hold of Amelia's hand with the other hand and pulled her out of the room and out of the house, making their way over to the other house and entering it. He grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, Amelia following feeling dead to the world and glad that James was leading her as she felt like dropping to the floor and sleeping wherever she landed.

James shut the fridge back up and pulled Amelia up the stairs, he kicked his shoes off as she shut the door behind him, throwing the bottle over to the side where it landed on top of one of the suitcases. Amelia collapsed on the bed after kicking off her own shoes and James collapsed down next to her. Amelia felt him laying next to her but didn't want to kick him out of the bed, it required too much energy, after that thought it wasn't long before she fell into a deep sleep.

When she woke up the first thing she noticed was her sickness had gone as had her headache, the second was that they had been asleep for the best part of the day and it was nearly dinner time, she also noticed that James was still asleep next to her. She sat up slowly and ran her fingers through her hair as she noticed that she had slept in the clothes she was wearing, she stood up slowly with a loud yawn as she grabbed for a change of clothes and her toiletries and left the room so she could have a shower.

When she came back to the room she noticed that James had got up and was sitting on the edge of the bed his head in his hands. He looked up at her and Amelia could see that he was pale and clearly still hung-over.

"Do you remember anything of last night?" he asked her croakily as he looked up at her blearily. Amelia had to think for a moment before she admitted that she didn't remember anything either.

"I remember turning up and beginning to drink and then waking up in the other house hugging Lucy's feet." Amelia admitted truthfully, as James stood up slowly and grabbed his stuff so he could go have a shower.

"Yeah same here, I remember waking up on Fred which was weird. Although I do vaguely remember Uncle Charlie turning up," James said causing Amelia to frown slightly as she tried to recall Charlie being there, "He made us drink Firewhiskey shots." James added, causing Amelia to let out a 'oh,' as she remembered.

"Yeah he's the reason I feel like I do today," James said with a groan as he opened the door and exited the room, Amelia watched James leave and wondered why her mind was trying to remember something that happened between them yesterday, she could vaguely remember arguing with James.

"Did something happen between us yesterday?" James asked Amelia as he poked his head back into the room; Amelia looked up at him as he spoke. "Because I think I remember us yelling at each other."

Amelia shook her head at him as she tried to remember anything else that had happened between the two but her mind was drawing a blank. James seemed to look slightly sad before he gave a small sigh. "Maybe I dreamed it then." He said before he walked away from the door and down towards the bathroom.

Amelia frowned to herself as she thought about the meaning behind James's words, but couldn't remember anything. She gave a shrug cursing the drink Firewhiskey in her head as she exited the room, shoving her wand into her jeans pocket as she left.

"Look who's finally awake!" Charlie called as he smiled over at Amelia who walked into the kitchen to find Charlie, Fred and Albus sitting around the table, all had food in front of them.

"Where are the others?" Amelia asked with a yawn as she walked over to the fridge and took out a bottle of water, before she walked over to the table and took a seat between Charlie and Albus.

"They're over at the other house. Your parents have all decided to celebrate Victoires pregnancy with a lot of wine, they've been drinking for a few hours now." Charlie said looking down at his watch.

"Then how comes you're over here and not over there with them?" She asked him as Charlie picked up his sandwich and ate it. Fred and Albus were looking a little queasy as they watched Charlie eat the food.

"I'm arriving fashionably late," he told her with a shrug as he chewed his sandwich. "That and I don't care for goblin made wine, no matter how nice it may be, or how much it cost."

"Yeah I remember you plying us all with Firewhiskey," Amelia stated, Fred and Albus let out groans next to her as they heaved slightly.

"Don't ever mention that devils drink near me again." Fred said his hand flying over his mouth as he took in deep breaths to try and get rid of the sick feeling that had risen in his throat.

Charlie let out a chuckle, "You amateurs! You wait until I get you all Russian mead, that stuff will blow your socks off!"

"Don't! I don't think I can ever drink again," Albus groaned his head on the table.

"If you feel like that then I won't invite you over to celebrate with us," Charlie told them simply as he finished his sandwich and stood up, waving his wand so the plate flew over to the sink and washed itself up before placing itself on the draining board to dry. "Although you may want to come over at some point, because if I know anything about your parents it's that they know how to throw one hell of a party." and with those words he left via the back door and made his way over to the other house.

"You know Uncle Ron," Teddy said clapping Ron on the back as he threw his arm around him, "When I'm a dad I want to be as great as you. You have raised your kids in such a well mannered and respectful way and I hope that I am as good a dad as you are."

"Oh thanks Teddy," Ron said beaming proudly as he puffed his chest out slightly. "You will be a great dad Teddy I just know it."

"Only because I've had you to guide me, I really look up to you Uncle Ron," Teddy told him before he looked around and spotted Harry standing alone in the corner pouring himself a drink. "I'll talk to you later ok Uncle Ron?"

"Ok Teddy I'll see you later." Ron said the smile still on his face as he walked back over to his wife who was talking to Angelina and Fleur, a glass of red Goblin made wine in her hand.

"Hey Harry." Teddy said walking over to his godfather and throwing his arm around him.

"Oh hello Teddy, how are you?" Harry asked taking his glass and handing it to Teddy who took it with thanks, before pouring himself another drink.

"I'm good thanks, just a bit nervous at the prospect of being a dad really." Teddy admitted as he took a gulp of his drink.

"You'll do fine Teddy, you were excellent with all of the kids when they were growing up and I know you'll be just as good with your own child." Harry told him honestly and confidently knowing that his godson would be great at being a dad.

"That's because I've had you to guide me Harry, I look up to you, you know. When I'm a dad I want to be as great as you. You have raised your kids in such a well mannered and respectful way and I hope that I am as good a dad as you are."

Harry felt himself swell with pride at his comments, not realising that Teddy had just used the exact same speech on Ron a few moments earlier.

"Oh Teddy, I didn't know you felt that way I'm honoured that I've been such a great role model for you and I will make sure to help you in any way that I can to help you be a better father."

Teddy smiled thankfully at Harry before he patted him on the back and let go of him, "I really appreciate this Harry. Now I must go see Victoire, I'll catch up with you later on ok?"

"Ok see you later on Teddy." Harry said as Teddy walked away from his godfather a smirk on his face as he made his way over to his wife.

"There you are James," Harry said seeing his son and his wife making their way into the room and looking around, Harry walked over to them as he took a sip of his drink, "How are you feeling this morning?" he asked them a hint of a smile on his face as he remembered just how much everyone had drunk.

James glared at his father slightly as Amelia told him that she was fine.

"I still feel like utter crap," James admitted running his hand through his hair, which he hadn't even bothered brushing today, "What about you and Uncle Ron? You both seem fine to me and yet you drank as much as us."

"Yeah well Ron was still a little drunk before this party and I know how to handle my drink James."

"Well we'll be seeing just how much in the morning dad." James warned him, Harry raised his eyebrows at his son's words.

"You will never catch me as drunk as you lot were yesterday." Harry said with a laugh before he walked away from them and over to his wife.


	16. Chapter 16

"I think we all know why we've brought you down here." James said loudly his hands on his hips as he looked down in disappointment at the adults all lounging around the front room their eyes closed and their arms over their faces as they groaned to each other. Amelia was stood next to James as well as all of the other cousins, who all looked down at their parents as they shook their heads at them.

"Your behaviour last night was unacceptable." Albus stated.

"You can't prove anything." Harry stated from where he was laying across Bill and Ron who were laying their heads back on the sofa. Albus raised an eyebrow at him in disbelief.

"Well in that case..." he turned to look at Louis who was holding what appeared to be a few pictures in his hands, "Louis please present exhibit A."

Louis walked forward and held out the first picture, the adults all squinted over at the picture, Louis waved his wand and the picture expanded itself until it was clear. It hovered in front of them all, and they could clearly see Harry with his shirt off singing into what appeared to be a spatula.

"What do you have to say for yourself dad?" Albus asked. Harry waved his hand at them as he said.

"It was a good song, everyone agreed with me," Harry looked around at the others who nodded in agreement that the song was good.

"Ok it may have been a great song, but was the stripping part necessary?"

Harry shrugged as Ginny said, "I liked it," causing Albus, James and Lily to pull disgusted faces

"Please don't EVER say anything like that again..." Lily groaned shaking her head.

"Why? It's not like me and your father never -" Ginny began but she was cut off by the yells of her children, who were begging her to stop talking,

"Exhibit B!" Albus said loudly before his mother or father could talk about their love life's. Louis walked forward and replaced the picture with another one, he resized it and everyone looked at it.

"Now what we would like to know is how exactly Uncle George got stuck in this tree... hanging upside down," James asked pointing at the picture showing George unconscious and upside down in a tree. Everyone ignored him as they closed their eyes again and groaned. James tutted slightly as Louis replaced the picture with another one and enlarged that one.

"Now this one...we are extremely concerned about Uncle Charlie,"

Everyone looked up at the picture and instantly blanched and let out yells of disgust as they shielded their eyes from the sight of it.

"Dear Merlin what on earth are you doing in that picture?" Bill cried looking over at his younger brother who seemed almost proud of himself.

"Hey what can I say? I'm enjoying single life..." Charlie told them smugly.

"What you did was disgusting! Hugo has been scarred for life because he saw this happening!"

"I was trying to sleep," Hugo admitted shaking slightly from fear as he rocked back and forth on the spot. "I will never burn the image from my mind."

"None of us will be able to burn the image from our minds!" Fleur cried holding her hand out in front of her to block the image from her view; Arthur and Molly were looking away in embarrassment from what their son appeared to be doing in the picture. "Can someone please destroy the picture?"

Louis waved his wand and the picture disintegrated in front of them and they all calmed considerably as Louis waved his wand at the next picture.

"This lewd behaviour shown in this photo is revolting!" Louis stated as he pointed to the picture. The adults all stared at it in confusion.

"That's not us," George stated slowly as Angelina gasped at the photo.

"That's Fred!" Percy cried pointing to it, Fred paled considerably as he ran forward and looked at the photo before waving his wand at it so it returned to its regular size and he shoved it in his pocket.

"Was that a poster of Dumbledore?" Audrey asked horrified, Fred quickly shook his head.

"I think we should move on to the next exhibit," Fred told them.

"No I think we need to stop, this isn't going to prove anything we are adults we can behave in any way that we want," Hermione told them her hand holding her head as though it pained her, "Now unless you plan on lecturing us all day, we all want to go back to bed."

"Yeah and while we're sleeping you can all make us some food," Percy told them, the other adults all agreed with him.

The younger ones could only watch on as the adults all got up and made their way slowly to their respective rooms, all except Charlie who patted James and Albus on the backs as he passed.

"I like my eggs sunny side up," he gave them a wink before he walked away chuckling to himself.

"Well that went according to plan," Molly Junior said with a sigh, she had been quiet the entire time they had lectured their parents.

"We could have used your help," Albus stated as Louis took the photos and threw them on the coffee table as they all chose to leave the room as well.

"It's like looking after children!" Amelia cried a few hours later as she poured boiling water into various cups, stirring the contents of them all after she had placed the kettle back down on the side.

"No, it's like we're there slaves," James muttered as he placed all of the sandwiches on the plates and waited for the others to come back so they could take the cups of tea and coffee and plates of sandwiches to the adults. "They never did this for us yesterday!"

"I hope our children won't be this bad," James joked as he wiped the side with a cloth.

Amelia let out a laugh, "our children will learn that they can't get things by whining like this lot," she pointed to the ceiling.

"I can't wait until we have our own, Teddy and Victoire are so lucky," Amelia agreed with him as she laughed again, before they suddenly stopped laughing as they realised what they had just said.

They stared at each other in awkwardness for a moment before Amelia coughed and looked away. "But we're not going to be having children are we?" she said softly and trying not to let this statement get to her as much as it did. It was like a kick to the stomach.

"Uncle Charlie is demanding chocolate biscuits," Dominique groaned as she walked into the kitchen and shaking her head as she placed an empty plate on the side.

"He's not even hung-over!" Louis cried as he followed his sister into the room, "he just enjoys us doing his bidding for him."

"It's exactly like when I went to work with him in Romania, he treated me like his slave then too." James admitted to them all.

"He requested a foot massage off of me," Molly Junior cried as she walked into the room also.

"Here are the other plates and drinks," Amelia told them all handing them the items, "just try to avoid Uncle Charlie's room he's big enough and ugly enough to get his own stuff."

James and Amelia were left alone in the room as they decided to wipe down the counters in the kitchen.

"I would have liked two kids," Amelia said softly, James's head whipped out fast he wasn't sure if he heard her properly.

"I'm sorry what?" he asked her in shock. Amelia looked up at James as she spoke again.

"I would have liked two kids," she repeated, "a boy and a girl."

James stared at her amazed that she was talking about this, "I want three kids," he told her as he placed his cloth down and turned to look at her.

"We never talked about what kids we would have wanted," Amelia stated as she continued cleaning and carefully avoiding eye contact with him, it was easier for her to talk about it this way.

"I know... I guess we just weren't ready for them," James said slowly as he leant back on the counter and watched her.

She let out a small sigh as she placed the cloth on the side and finally looked up at him.

"I wish things were a lot different," she admitted, James nodded slowly trying to ignore the pained look on Amelia's face but it was proving difficult.

"Me too."

The adults had finally stopped demanding that their children be at their beck and call at about two in the afternoon, which they were all thankful for. They slouched around on the chairs in the vast garden relishing in the peace and quiet and the fact that they were sitting down.

"Do you know what?" Dom cried loudly causing everyone to jump wildly, Dom ignored their glares towards her. "It's my birthday soon!"

"Yeah we know in a few days time," Lucy stated after she had calmed her heart down. "You've been reminding us since your birthday last year."

"I just wanted you all prepared," Dom admitted with a shrug, "So you could buy me lots of presents."

"What makes you think we'll buy you presents?" Rose asked with a laugh, Dom glared at her and punched her lightly in the arm.

"Do you also know what else is great?" Molly Junior cried causing everyone to turn their gaze to her.

"What?" Albus asked questioningly.

"These two here," Molly jabbed her thumb towards where James and Amelia were sitting next to each other, "Haven't argued with each other in a few days."

Fred and Lucy exchanged looks Amelia and James had argued outside the pub but the only ones who had witnessed or remembered it was them, and they kept that piece of information quiet.

"Oh yeah," Louis agreed as the rest of the family nodded in agreement and began mentioning how they had noticed as well.

"Well what can I say? She loves her husband," James said reaching forward and wrapping his arms around Amelia who grimaced slightly causing everyone to laugh at her expression.

"What can I say?" Amelia said mocking James slightly, "he has a big bank account."

Everyone let out loud guffaws at her comment and James shook his head as he too laughed, letting go of her he leant backwards. Amelia felt the warmth leave her as soon as James removed his arms from around her and she tried to hide her disappointment at the fact that she had felt this way, or the fact that she had let herself feel this way.

She had forgotten that she was trying to push him away from her and not give in to him, or her feelings for him, after all in a few days time they wouldn't be seeing much of each other after they get divorced. She plastered a smile on her face even though inside she didn't feel it, her and James being around each other had a best before date and it was quickly approaching.

"Talking of bank accounts," Lily said with a smile, "I think we should go shopping. They have this great little clothes shop down the town and I just know I can find something to wear for Dominique's party in there."

The other girls all agreed whilst the boys let out groans at the prospect of having to spend the remainder of the day discussing dresses and shoes, each of them standing up.

"No one is making you come with us," Roxanne told them sharply, causing the boys to instantly stop groaning and to perk up considerably.

"Well in that case you go have fun," Albus told them with a smile, "I believe we may have a small game of Quidditch."

Fred, James and Louis agreed whilst Hugo looked like this was the last thing he wanted to do.

"Can't we do something else?"

"Wha...wha...WHAT!" Albus cried doing a double take and staring at Hugo as if he had grown three heads and was dancing, whilst wearing a Gnome costume, in a field of strawberries. The dancing something which Albus had seen Hugo do before, he just couldn't remember if it was a dream or real. "No Quidditch? Are you crazy?" he cried causing Hugo to regret saying anything. Fred, James and Louis were staring at Hugo as if they had finally seen him in his true colours.

"It's just -" Hugo faltered as he felt uncomfortable under their gazes, "- That... well we played Quidditch the other day and... I'm ... tired. It's been a long day and I still don't feel that well from yesterday -"

"What, what, WHAT!" Albus cried again this time able to make full sentences. "And you call yourself a Potter?"

"But I don't," Hugo stated staring at him in confusion, "I'm a Weasley."

"Then a love for Quidditch should be imprinted in your bones!" Fred cried loudly, "if Uncle Ron could hear you now, he's only son. He's pride and joy no less, turning down a chance to play Quidditch... It's an outrage!"

"But I'll play another day."

"Oh no the damage has been done!" Louis cried and he sounded quite upset at what Hugo had been saying, "we'll go find Uncle Percy maybe he'll want to play Quidditch with us."

"You see what we've been resorted to? Asking Uncle Percy to join our game! I hope you're happy now!" Louis said shaking his fist at Hugo.

"But guys -"

They shook their heads at Hugo who was watching them open mouthed, Lily walked forward and took Hugo by the hand to pull him away from the accusatory glares of the boys.

"Come on Hugo we don't need them," Lily stated before turning back to face the boys, "Quidditch is stupid," she said sticking her tongue out at her brothers and cousins who all let out gasps of shock.

"How could you!" Fred said indignantly, "Roxanne did you hear this? She's insulting your job!"

Roxanne shrugged, "Hey I don't mind, it's her choice not mine."

"You are no sister of mine!"

Roxanne shook her head at him and held out her hand, "Whatever Fred, now give me that twenty Galleons you owe me."

"I don't have it," Fred said crossing his arms angrily and turning away from her.

Roxanne glared at him before she walked forward and grabbed Fred by the hair yanking hard, Fred let out a shriek of pain before whimpering loudly.

"I know you have it Fred, I saw you get money off of dad."

"Fine, fine! I'll give it to you just please let go of my hair," Roxanne let go of his hair and Fred rubbed his head where the hair was getting pulled out gingerly. He turned away from them and began to walk back to the house, Roxanne following knowing that her brother would more than likely run off if he was left alone.

The others let out laughs at Fred's expense, the boys stopping suddenly and going back to glaring, when they realised they were still angry at Hugo. Amelia rolled her eyes at James's behaviour before she too held out her hand at him; he looked down at it a perplexed look on his face as he looked back up at her his eyebrow raised in question.

"Oh come on hubby," she said pronouncing the last word slowly as she waited with her hand out, "your wife needs money to go shopping."

James rolled his eyes before he put his hands in his pocket and pulled out his money bag, opening it he began to place his hand in to pull out the coins but Amelia snatched it out of his hands and placed it in her pocket smiling widely at him.

"Thanks love," she said putting her hand on his face and slapping him slightly. "Just think of this as compensation for forcing me to be here." she said in a low voice that only James could hear. She turned away from him before she could see his expression.

"Let's go shopping," she said loudly to the girls who cheered and Hugo seemed indifferent as they all walked back to the house to get ready.

"Well what should we do now?" James asked feeling suddenly broke as he turned to look at Albus and Louis.

"Oooo I have an idea," Louis said suddenly, "Uncle Harry is taking a nap on the sofa right?"

"Yeah?" Albus and James said together.

"And Victoire has left her really expensive girlie lotions around right?"

They nodded suddenly feeling excited as the plan formed in their heads; they shoved each other as they ran back towards the adult's house eager to be the first one to put the lotions on Harry's face.

"I'm so tired," Lucy cried as she dropped her masses amounts of bags on the floor and collapsed on the chair in the kitchen, the others done the same as they too dropped their bags and sat down at the table.

"They have such good shops down there," Dom stated as she began rifling through her own bags and pulling out a few tops to admire them, before placing them back in the bag.

"I know, maybe I'll go back for those shoes I saw though they were so nice!" Molly stated as she got up to make them all a drink.

"But you already brought a few pairs," Amelia said with a laugh as Hugo look through his one small bag.

"Yeah well now I want another pair," Molly laughed as she brought all of the drinks over with a wave of her wand.

"I'm going to go find the guys and give them their presents," Hugo said as he stood up to leave the room, he had gotten Fred, Albus, James and Louis tiny fully flying Quidditch player action figures, he knew that they would love the presents and forgive him for earlier. But before he could go and find them to give them their presents they ran into the kitchen and dove under the table.

"What the -" Lucy cried as she was shoved out of the way, just like everyone else around the table as James, Fred, Louis and Albus all elbowed each other out of the way as they tried to stay under the table and hidden.

"What is going on?" Dom asked as she moved away from the table and looked below the table, everyone else moved away from the table and got up so they too could look under it at the four cowering people under it. It was a good thing they did as Victoire came storming in a few moments later with Teddy following close behind, Victoire had her wand out and was waving it around frantically, the table lifted and moved across the room so she could get a clear view of her cousins and brother.

"I cannot believe you had the audacity to take my stuff like that!" she shrieked as the boys tried to scramble out of the way of her wand. "All of that cost me a few hundred Galleons! I had to get it shipped over to me and you use all of it on Uncle Harry?"

"Well he does look better now," Fred stated and before he could scramble out of the way Victoire grabbed him by the arm and dragged him across the floor towards the door. Fred let out a cry of help as Victoire pointed her wand at him.

"Vic, VIC!" Teddy cried Victoire turned to face her husband, Fred took this opportunity to get out of Victoires grasp and back over to the others huddling with them in fear, each of them wondering why on earth they thought that it was a good idea to use everything on Harry, who looked considerably younger and had a face as smooth as silk. Harry was extremely happy with the end result, even if he wasn't happy that it had happened to him against his will whilst he was asleep.

"You need to calm down, think about the baby this stress can't be good," Teddy said taking hold of her hand and gently prying the wand out of it. "They'll give you the money to buy some more, won't you?" he turned to face them and they agreed instantly.

"Of course we will, just please don't hurt us again," Albus whimpered, fear still filling his face as he tried to hide behind Louis.

Victoire glared down at them before growling out, "Fine... Fine! But you wait, everyone is going to find out about this and I won't let you forget it until you give me my money."

Teddy followed as Victoire stormed back out of the house; the boys let out sighs of relief at her departure as they stood up slowly and dusted themselves down.

"You guys are jerks," Molly stated as they waved their wands at the table and put it back where it was.

"Tell us something we don't know," Albus stated.

Amelia woke up as she hugged the cover tighter to her, shivering slightly. She stared around in the darkness as she felt the coldness fill the room, she hadn't been this cold in a while but it was March and it had been quite windy today.

The other thing that had woken her up was the sound of loud rain outside the window and the occasion crash of thunder. She shuffled across her bed and looked over the side down at James who was huddled on the floor clutching his cover to him; Amelia noticed in the darkness her eyes had become slightly adjusted to that he too was shivering.

She felt a sudden pity fill through her as she watched him trying to get warm on the floor and she couldn't take seeing him down there anymore, struggling to keep the cover around him.

"James," she whispered as she looked over the edge of the bed and called down to him, "James!"

He stirred slightly as she called him again.

"What is it?" he asked her not moving from his position on the floor.

"It's really cold," she stated James turned over to face her and she could see that his eyes were squinting at her as they were sleep filled.

"I can tell," James said with a shiver as he tried to keep his eyes open as he looked up at her.

"I don't want you to get cold down there. Do you want to get in the bed?"

It took James a moment to register what she was saying, "are you sure?" he asked her.

"Yeah I am, I'd hate for you to get frostbite down there," she said jokingly. James let out a small laugh as he got off of the floor slowly and picked up his pillow and quilt, Amelia shuffled back to her side as James got into the bed. He placed his pillow down on his side and threw the cover over the one on the bed so they could have two quilts.

"I just want you to know," Amelia said in a whisper in warning to James who was in close proximity to her, "that this is only a one time thing because it is cold, and I don't think your parents will forgive me if you catch pneumonia. Also I don't want you touching me during the night or I will shove you back out of the bed."

James smiled which was unseen by Amelia as she turned her back to him and closed her eyes to get to sleep, hugging the quilt tight to her.

"Noted," he said as he too got comfortable and closed his eyes.

* * *

A/N: So James and Amelia cuteness in this chapter, I hope you all liked this chapter! Let me know in a review.


	17. Chapter 17

Amelia opened her eyes slowly the next day; she felt warm and comfortable and hugged herself tighter to what she was hugging. She had had such a good sleep, the best she had had in months and it had made her feel refreshed and full of energy.

She noticed after her head had woken from its sleepy state that the thing she had been hugging was James, she could feel his arms around her waist pulling her close to him and he had rested his head on hers. She could feel his heart through his chest and his warm breath on her hair, and she hadn't felt happier than in this moment.

She felt James beginning to stir and Amelia quickly closed her eyes pretending to still be asleep, she sensed him opening his eyes and realising the position that him and Amelia had gotten into whilst they were sleeping. He hugged her tighter to him, thinking that she was still sound asleep and seemed to be relishing in the fact that they were this close to each other for the first time in months.

He kissed her lightly on the head and Amelia screwed her eyes up as she felt a rush of sadness creep through her at the tenderness of the moment, knowing that this would be the only time they would have it, and it tore at her heart to think that this was it, this was the end of everything.

She felt James pull away from her and she tried to relax her face to make it seem like she was still asleep but James didn't say anything, she felt the bed move as he got out of it and walked over to the door. She opened her eyes at the sound of the door opening and then closing, feeling hollowness in her chest and an ache in her heart.

She reached forwards and grabbed the pillow James had been sleeping on, laying her head on it and breathing in his smell, it tugged at her heartstrings and she let out a sob as tears cascaded from her eyes.

She didn't realise until now just how much she had missed him, and how much she wished that they could be back to what they were. She let herself cry for a few more moments before she stopped and when James came back into the room ten minutes later Amelia was already dressed and had made the bed, ready to face the day.

"That is the best t shirt I have ever seen!" Louis cried loudly as he pointed at the shirt that James was wearing.

James beamed as he looked down at his shirt which read 'my dad defeated Voldemort and all I got was this lousy t-shirt', "it's great isn't it? Uncle Charlie got it for me."

"Uncle Charlie gets the best presents," Rose said as she continued eating her cereal in front of her, "he is the best uncle ever."

"Why thank you," Charlie said smugly as he drank the rest of his coffee, "I had it personally made for you."

"I would never have guessed, I thought you could buy these from the shops," Fred said with a smile.

After they had eaten breakfast and discussed James's top, which Harry wasn't impressed with but Ron thought was hilarious and wanted one for himself saying, 'my best friend' instead of 'my dad', they made their way over to the other house to sit with their parents.

They discussed their plans for the day, the upcoming party for Dom's birthday and pretty soon the exciting news of Molly's engagement which had happened just after Christmas.

"So Molly, have you begun planning for your wedding yet?" Hermione asked over her cup of tea as she looked over at her niece who smiled widely.

"She's been planning it since he proposed," Audrey said proudly looking over at her daughter.

"I think you'll find she's been planning it since she was seven," Percy told the family, causing Molly to blush.

"Dad!" she cried in embarrassment as her face reddened.

"Oh come on now Molly, it's not that bad lots of girls do it," he let out a sudden laugh as he thought of something, turning to face George, "do you remember when Ginny began planning her wedding to Harry?" George as well as all of the other brothers let out laughs as they remembered.

"Remember?" he asked, "I think mum still has the book at the Burrow?"

Ginny suddenly placed her cup on the side a hard glare setting on her face, forgetting that her brother's knew about her wedding plans to Harry. And thinking how best to attack him with a bat bogey hex without her mother knowing that she had done it. Ginny may be an adult now but her mother still scared her.

"Oh that's cute when did you start planning it?" Hermione asked her sister-in-law who was glaring at Percy for bringing it up.

"When she was ten," Percy said loudly as he burst out into more laughter hitting the table with his hand as George and Ron began giggling next to him, Charlie let out a loud laugh as he pointed at his sister, and Bill had a smirk on his face. The rest of the family began laughing apart from Ginny who was bright red and looked like she was going to kill Percy, and Harry who looked a little stunned.

"It was when she first met him," Molly senior said wiping her eyes with mirth, "as soon as we said goodbye to everyone at the station and I had taken her home she set straight to work on her wedding plans. She told me there and then that she was going to be marrying Harry Potter no matter what, and now look at her. Her dreams came true."

Harry gave a smile as he rubbed his wife's shoulders to calm her down, but the others could all see that he was a little shocked by the news.

"I just hope my wedding can be as magical as that," Molly Junior said with a sigh, she had seen the pictures of the wedding and it was breathtaking, the best that money could buy.

"Just make sure you don't get married abroad unless we can all come with you," Ron said with a wink at Amelia who smiled but became suddenly hot. She glanced at James who was looking at his Uncle.

"I wish I could have gone to your wedding," Molly cried turning to face James who turned to look at her, "it would have been so fun, why did you have to get married in Las Vegas?"

"It's not like we planned it. It was a drunken decision," James laughed, "but don't worry we'll do another wedding here just so you can come."

Amelia looked up and glared at him as the family around them all talked excitedly; she noticed that the family were beginning to look at her so she placed a fake smile on her face as she felt the anger at James fill her.

"I can't wait for the wedding," Rose cried hugging Amelia tightly, as they were sitting next to each other, Amelia hugged her back as she tried to make it look like she was happy, but she knew it wouldn't be long before everyone would find out just how angry she was at this 'news'.

Soon almost everyone was drawn into conversation about the upcoming 'weddings' and Amelia took this as her opportunity to leave, without looking back she left the house and walked out to the garden. Wrapping her arms around herself she carried on walking trying to stop herself from getting angry at James, who she could sense had followed her out of the house.

"You had no right to do that," Amelia told him in ire as she began shaking with rage, "no right at all!"

"Look I'm sorry it just slipped out, I didn't think."

"And how do you think they'll feel after this holiday when they find out it's all been nothing but a lie huh? How sorry will you feel then?" she asked him turning around to face him, James stared at her with his hands in his pockets, looking a bit sheepish.

"I can't apologise enough for what I've done but I can't keep apologising to you Amelia, you need to forgive me," James stated starting to get annoyed with their arguing.

"Did you invite me to this party because you think that it'll repair us? That it would make me forgive you?" Amelia asked incredulously as she glowered up at him.

"I wasn't thinking that, I swear I wasn't," James said holding his hands up in defence.

"Then what's with all the talk in there James?" Amelia cried pointing back to the house, what's with you telling everyone that we're getting remarried? Encouraging them when they suggest that we go off and have kids?" James could see that her eyes were filling with tears and he felt terrible, "you don't know how this feels. Everything I ever wanted for us and we can't have it, and I have to have your family and you remind me of that fact every day that we are here and it is killing me!"

"But we can have that Amelia; we can if you just let us. We can have everything you ever wanted; we can go back to what we were."

"It's not as simple as that James and you know it! I can't just click my fingers and have everything that happened go away..."

They looked at each other in raged silence before James walked forward and grabbed for her hand, she tried to pull it away but he was holding on tightly.

"Do you remember our vows?" James asked her, Amelia shook her head trying to block out his words as she screwed up her eyes, trying not to cry.

"Don't do this," she begged him, her tone showing that the idea of thinking about it pained he, "please don't bring that up."

Even though they had drunk a lot, Amelia had asked if they could say their own vows to each other, it was one of the things she could remember the most of the night.

"You promised me that you would love me for all of eternity. You said that there would never be anything big enough to break us up and we would work through any problems we faced no matter what it was," James said softly his tone urgent as he tried to get the words through to her.

"What the hell did I know James?" she screamed wrenching her hand from his and shoving him away from her as she glared up at him, tears in her eyes, "how was I meant to know what you were going to do?"

"You have broken your promise to me because you haven't even tried to fix us Amelia!" James yelled at her angrily, "you didn't care enough to try and work things out."

"How dare you! You have no idea what I went through..." she growled fiercely.

"Yes I do! I lost someone just like you did. I am going through the same pain that you are, I feel like I will never be as happy with someone like I was with you..."

"It didn't seem that way when you went back to that girl's house with her did it? You must have been happy if you slept with her," she slapped him hard on the arm; she wanted to kick at him, hit out at him, cause him as much pain as she felt inside.

"Hitting me isn't going to change anything," James cried grabbing her hand to stop her from hitting him again.

"It's making me feel better! But it's all about you isn't it? Well what are you going to do now then James to make yourself feel better? Go find some slut down the town and sleep with her; you seem to be good at that don't you?" Amelia seethed, and the look that crossed James's face made her realise that she had gone too far but she didn't care, she was too angry to care what he felt at this moment.

James shook his head at her as he back away from her, "that was low," he fumed dangerously as he turned away from her and stormed out of the garden. She felt angry tears drip down her face and she wiped them in annoyance as she stayed where she was, Angry at him and angrier at herself.

A/N: :O big things are beginning to happen! :D Don't hate me too much. *gives cookies to everyone*


	18. Chapter 18

A/N: You all get to meet Albus's girlfriend in this, yep Albus has a girlfriend :D

* * *

She didn't watch him leave the garden, choosing instead to turn around and storm back into the house, wiping her eyes furiously as she neared the door. She willed herself to hold back her tears but she was failing miserably.

She wrenched open the door and entered the room, quickly realising that someone new was in the room to see her tear filled face. Mariah Hayes was Albus's girlfriend and had been since their sixth year, how anyone could manage to stay with Albus confused Amelia to no end, she could barely sit next to him at dinner.

Mariah had obviously arrived whilst Amelia was outside with James, as her bags were by her seat, which would mean that Albus didn't know she was here yet; Albus had told them all previously that Mariah was arriving late due to her work commitments.

Amelia tried to rush past them ignoring the looks that Fred, Lucy, Roxanne and Mariah were shooting her, noticing vaguely that everyone else had left the room. She walked across the room as Fred began walking towards her.

"Amelia... are you ok?" he asked. She barely stopped walking as she answered him.

"I'm fine!" she said shortly through gritted teeth.

"Where's James?" Fred faltered, noticing that she was crying.

"I don't care," she cried managing to leave the room before more tears fell.

Fred gave the others a confused look before he ran out of the house and after James. The girls all stood up and rushed after Amelia, after shooting each other silent looks. But by the time that they had reached the room that James and Amelia had been sharing, Amelia had already entered and had locked the door behind her.

"Amelia," Lucy said as she knocked on the door. Amelia didn't reply.

Lucy knocked again, when she didn't get any answer she looked at Roxanne and Mariah, who Roxanne had filled in with everything that had happened earlier down in the kitchen, Fred and Lucy had stayed silent through that conversation.

"What do you think happened between them?" Mariah asked them in a low voice. Lucy let out a quick shrug, trying to make it sound like she had no clue.

"I don't know either," Roxanne said also quietly, looking at the door quickly before turning back to the others, nodding down the hall telling them to walk down there so they could talk a bit louder. After they had moved she spoke again, "I'm not sure if any of you have noticed but they do seem to be acting a bit strange."

She looked back up the corridor before she continued. "They're not as affectionate as they used to be, they used to hardly be able to keep their hands off of each other and now it's like they don't go near each other."

"From what Albus has told me in his letters they don't seem as happy as they used to be," Mariah said.

"Now if Albus has noticed, something big has got to be happening," Roxanne said with a laugh. Mariah smiled as she nodded her agreement.

"Although maybe they're both just tired? I know she's been really stressed because of work, she's doing all of the hours under the sun," Lucy stated trying to get the others to just think that this was down to stress. "And James can't have been much help at all acting like... well James. We all know what he's like!"

The others all nodded their agreement.

"He can be annoying," Mariah stated, folding her arms over her chest as she looked at the others.

Roxanne scoffed. "Understatement of the century."

"I bet it's just that though," Lucy continued. "I mean look at how they were the other day when we were at the pub, and that time when we cooked lunch. It's just a fight, I'm telling you. Maybe the whole getting remarried was meant to be a secret and they were going to surprise us, and Amelia just got annoyed that he told early."

Mariah and Roxanne nodded at what she said. "That must be it. I hope they sort this argument out soon," Mariah stated.

"Me too. Do you want to go find Lily? She said that she wants help getting Hugo a date, and with Hugo she's going to need all of the help she can get," Roxanne stated, Mariah laughed loudly.

"I'll meet you down there," Lucy told them as Roxanne and Mariah began descending down the stairs, they stopped to turn and look at Lucy. "I'm going to try and get her to talk to me, and if she won't I'll just unlock the door with Alohamora."

"Why didn't we think of that?" Mariah cried throwing her arms in the air.

"Because you're both stupid," Lucy said with a smile at them as she turned around and walked back to Amelia and James's room.

Lucy knocked on the door. "Amelia it's me, let me in."

Amelia wiped her eyes again as she grabbed her bag, walking around the room she began grabbing things and stuffing them into it, the anger building up in her at James and herself, causing her to shake slightly.

Letting out a few sobs she continued making her way around the room, not caring that she was making a mess in her haste to pack things. Not caring that she probably looked a mess, and trying so hard not to care about the argument she had just had with the man she still loved more than anything else in this world.

Her hand reached out and messed up a pile of clothes, grabbing for her own clothes and stuffing them into the bag. But the force of her stuffing them into the bag caused her to drop it, the contents spilling out slightly. She let out an annoyed cry as she fell to her knees to pick her stuff back up.

As she finished she let out a sigh and looked around the room from where she was kneeling to see if she had forgotten anything, her eyes fell on a bit of fabric that was sticking out of James's bag by the door. Sniffing loudly she crawled over to the bag by the door, she sat down normally her back leaning against the foot of the bed as she pulled the rest of the fabric out of the bag.

Amelia's eyes watered again as she looked at the jumper in her hands. It was the Quidditch jumper he wore at school that she always stole from James when she was cold, feeling ill or just generally feeling down. It was incredibly soft, worn, and large. She brought it up to her face and inhaled deeply, it always smelled of James.

She felt her chest tighten slightly as another sob escaped her lips. Taking the jumper away from her face she pulled it on, the sleeves were too long for her and she ended up crying into them instead of her hands.

She heard a knock on the door and Lucy's voice come from the other side of it. "Amelia it's me, let me in."

Amelia brought her head up from her covered hands and leant up in front of her to unlock the door before she sat back straight, her legs moving out of the way so Lucy could come in.

The door opened slowly as Lucy came into the room, Amelia kept her eyes on the bottom of the jumper, fiddling with the worn hem. She heard Lucy close the door behind her.

"What happened?" she asked her, Amelia shook her head as she screwed her face up slightly, the tears falling down her face again. Not trusting herself to speak yet, she knew the sobs would make it unintelligible.

Lucy waited patiently as she slid to the floor by the door; her knees touching Amelia's both sitting cross legged. She could only watch as her friend tried to calm her tears. After what seemed an age Amelia finally spoke up.

"How did we let it get so bad?"

Lucy didn't know how to answer her.

"Come home," Fred said simply as he stood next to James. It had been an hour before he found him; He almost missed him as he was skulking in a dark corner at the bar of the local pub of the area. James was hunched over on the table, his head in his hands and more than a few empty bottles of drink in front of him. "Talk to her."

"What's the point?" he heard James mumble from behind his hands. Fred shifted slightly on his feet before he shoved his hands in his pockets. "She'll just walk away from me like she did when we split up."

"James you need to try again," Fred said as he sat down next to James, not knowing what else to say to him.

"I have done nothing but keep trying for her Fred!" James yelled angrily before he grabbed for the drink in front of him.

Fred resisted the urge to roll his eyes at James's behaviour. "James, this isn't helping you at all. Alcohol is never a solution to anything serious like this."

"Wow," James said harshly before he downed his drink and asked the barman for another one, he eyed James suspiciously before he poured him another drink and pushed it over to him, James already had the money ready to pay him on the bar. "Life advice from Fred Weasley, don't hear that everyday now do you?"

"There's no need to be so rude James," Fred stated, feeling quite hurt by what James had said. It wasn't his fault that the family saw him as the joker and never one to give help or advice.

"No one asked you to come looking for me did they? No one cares that I've gone do they? No one cares how I feel about everything, or what I'm going through. Especially her," he said the last sentence through gritted teeth before grabbing the other drink and downing that as well, his face grimacing at the taste making its way down his throat.

"I care James."

"You're about the only one," James muttered before looking at the barman again.

"You need to slow down there mate," The barman said as he poured another drink "Drinking this quickly isn't good for your health," he passed James the drink. James gave him a hard look before he downed the drink quickly and pushed his money towards the barman.

"Don't worry I'm leaving soon anyway."

The barman watched James for a few more seconds before he went off to serve the next customer.

"I think we should go," Fred said, grabbing hold of James by the arm and trying steering him out of his seat.

"I think you should stop telling me what to do," James growled pulling his arm away from Fred a hard glare on his face. They both walked out of the pub and James began walking away from Fred. He rushed over to James and grabbed his arm to pull him to a halt.

"I know you feel -"

"No Fred you don't know anything! You don't know what it's like to know that you're marriage has failed!"

Fred just looked at him, "No I don't know how it feels James, and I'm sorry."

James ran his hand through his hair as he took a deep breath, sorrow had filled his eyes and they were starting to sting. He shook his head as he turned away from Fred, not wanting him to know that he was near tears.

"I done a stupid thing," he said, Fred could hear from his voice that he was trying not to cry. "And I wish so hard that I could take it back but I can't."

Fred walked forward and placed a hand on James's shoulder comfortingly, James didn't throw him off this time, and he just dropped his arms down to his side and stood dejectedly. "And I can't keep doing this Fred, I really can't. There are only so many times I can punish myself. And she doesn't even care at all! I'm done Fred. I'm done with this - with everything. I'm going to give her a divorce because I just can't put myself through this anymore."

Fred nodded slowly as he gave James a hug, James clutched onto Fred as he sniffed back his tears.

"And I know that she'll never forgive me, because I can see it in her eyes that she hates me. I don't know why I bothered even bloody trying!" He pulled away from Fred, suddenly feeling angry at himself. "I've had enough Fred, I have had bloody enough of this, and of her! I'm done with her."

Amelia wiped her tears with the sleeve of the jumper, as Lucy watched her.

"The only thing I don't understand Amelia is why you came here if you can't stand to be near him."

"I don't know," Amelia said with a sniff. "I only thought it was going to be a weekend and I would have been able to see you all for that last time..."

"Amelia ..." Lucy said softly as she placed her hand gently on Amelia's hand, causing her to stop her babbling and look up at Lucy. She let out a small sigh as she shook her head slightly and shrugged.

"I just don't know Lucy. I missed him. I know I shouldn't because of the way that he treated me but I just – I just miss him. I miss the way he made me feel like the only person in the whole world; the way he looked after me when I was sick or hurt; the way he used to wipe my tears away when I was reading a sad book. The way he made me laugh when work was stressing me out. How he ..." Amelia faltered.

Lucy could only look at her friend sadly and rub her hand comfortingly as tears sprung in Amelia's eyes.

"And now I have to come home to an empty flat and see reminders of him everywhere. It's one of the reasons why I work as much as I can, It's because I can't face coming home to an empty flat and thinking about what we used to be."

"You could've sent me an owl Amelia; I would have come over and – I don't know, helped you somehow."

"But I couldn't tell you, no matter how much I hated him for what happened I couldn't bring his family into it. I didn't want them to have to choose a side to be on."

Lucy sighed as she watched Amelia, play with the jumper. She didn't know what to say to Amelia, she wanted to tell her that there wouldn't be a divide but she knew that family would side with family in the end, even though Amelia was as much family as everyone else.

"I've been trying to convince myself that I could be without him," Amelia spoke again, interrupting the silence that had engulfed them. "And for so long I had kidded myself into thinking that I was doing fine, that I was going to get over him. And then this happens, he turns up at my work and asks me to help him out. I can't help myself when I say yes."

She sniffed before continuing, "Now I'm around him almost every moment of the day and it makes me think that maybe I won't ever be able to live without him. Nothing will ever be as great as they were with him, and that no matter how many times I have told myself and him that I don't love him anymore I know that I'm lying, because in all honesty he's the only one I'll ever want in this life."

She gave another sniff as she wiped her eyes with the sleeve of the jumper again. "I want to forgive him but there's this one small part of my brain that thinks he's just going to do it again. And I'm scared that by the time I get that voice to shut up it'll be too late to let him know how I feel."

Lucy stared at Amelia for a moment.

"You've been pushing him away to protect yourself; I can see why you would do that. Hell I would have done it myself. But you need to talk to him about this Amelia, you really do. I can only offer you words of comfort and advice but in the end you need to think about whether or not you can be without him."

Amelia nodded her head at Lucy. "I can't be without him Lucy."

"Then you need to forgive him, just hear him out Amelia. Before it's too late."

Fred had managed to finally convince James to come home, but only after James made Fred promise that he could crash in his room. It would be a bit cramped but Fred agreed.

"What's up with you?" Albus asked looking at James who was sat on the end of Fred's bed, a dark look on his face as he glared at nothing. "Amelia kick you out? Did she finally see sense and want the better looking Potter?"

"Albus for once just please stop talking," James muttered. Albus looked at James before turning to look at Fred with questioning eyes; Fred just shook his head at him.

"So tell me Albus, how does Mariah feel about you making all these jokes about Amelia?" Louis asked Albus who scoffed.

"She knows she can't control me, I'm a ladies' man."

It was Mariah's turn to scoff, Albus turned to look at Mariah who was sat on his bed.

"More like a lady man," she stated.

"I am no lady!" Albus shouted outraged at her.

"Like mother like son aye?" Louis laughed.

"You must admit you do look rather fetching in those sexy women's trousers," Fred said with a wink at Albus.

Albus lifted his leg up onto the bed and started rubbing them seductively, much to the disgust of everyone else in the room.

"Oi!" Mariah cried shoving Albus as she laughed, he stumbled to the floor. "Stop touching my trousers like that!"

The boys laughed including the sullen James, as Albus stood up straight.

"You're wearing Mariah's trousers?" Louis asked incredulously, shaking his head at his cousin.

"Mine were all dirty," Albus told them with a shrug. "And mum's refusing to do my washing for me, so I borrowed Mariah's. We share everything."

"Including your bad taste," Fred joked; Mariah threw a pillow at him, which he ducked out of the way of.

"Well you must have," Fred laughed as he threw the pillow back at her. "You've agreed to go out with jerk face here," he pointed at Albus who was still rubbing the legs of the trousers whilst winking at Louis. "And he's the biggest freak I know."

"Must be love," Albus said, now rubbing his torso over his t shirt and dancing in front of a scared Louis.

"I must be drunk," Mariah laughed, shaking her head at Albus.


	19. Chapter 19

James never came back into the room that night; Amelia knew this because she had stayed up to talk to him. Lucy had stayed with her the whole night so she wouldn't get lonely, making a quick stop to her own room to get her stuff, but had fallen asleep around four in the morning. Amelia hadn't slept at all.

Amelia and Lucy had been talking for most of the night, about how Amelia was feeling about the whole situation, it felt good to have someone to finally talk to properly that wasn't going to be taking sides. Her family when told had instantly taken her side and would say about how they always knew that James was trouble.

With Lucy she had listened to Amelia spilling out her inner most feelings and didn't pass judgement on either party, other than to call her cousin an idiot for ever cheating on Amelia, but she had made her see everything he was trying to do to make her see that he had changed. And talking about how each of them obviously still loved each other, and if she could just see past the one mistake in the relationship then maybe they could go to being friends at the least.

Amelia had finally come around to Lucy's thinking of being just friends with James, because she knew deep down that if she ever lost him completely from her life then she would just be miserable, like she had been for the past few months without him.

It was with this resolve that she had wanted to sit up and wait for James, to apologise for what she had said to him that day and to say about how she wanted to begin being friends, if not now then eventually, when she began to learn to trust him again. It wasn't much but it was all she felt that she was up to, and she hoped that it wasn't too late for them to at least attempt to have some sort of relationship between them.

But he never showed up.

She had been hoping that he would, but she knew that she had hurt him with what she said.

With another look at her watch and a loud sigh she got up off of the bed and decided to get showered and dressed, hoping that James would have calmed down when she went down to breakfast.

But he hadn't, she could tell by the cold look in his eyes and the hard look on his face. She had made her way downstairs after waking Lucy and waited for her to get ready, and as soon as she walked into the room she saw that James refused to make eye contact with her.

With a small look at Lucy, she grabbed herself an apple and a glass of water and sat down opposite him, Lucy sat next to her with a bowl of cereal a few moments later.

"How is everyone?" Amelia asked the group of people sat in the kitchen enjoying their breakfast. They each replied to her apart from James, who had kept quiet.

Her gaze flickered to Lucy again who was frowning at James.

Albus's looked between Amelia and James before turning to look at Mariah who was sitting next to him, eating some jam on toast.

"Awkward!" Albus said in a sing song voice, Mariah tried to hide her smirk behind her toast as everyone else turned to look at Albus who plastered an innocent look on his face. "What?" he asked.

James shook his head at Albus before going back to his breakfast. Amelia let out a small cough before she looked at James again.

"You didn't come back last night," she said quietly to James, he let out a small sigh before he answered her.

"Noticed did you?" he answered in an annoyed tone.

"Well, yeah. Of course I did," Amelia stated, noticing that James still wasn't looking at her.

"I'm surprised you even cared," James snapped before standing up suddenly and leaving the table, throwing his bowl of half eaten cereal into the sink and storming out of the room muttering as he left ."You don't care about anything!"

Amelia watched him leave, not feeling hungry anymore. She put down her apple and stood up slowly, aware that everyone's eyes were on her. She left the room quickly.

She spent most of the morning sitting away on her own and wondering just what she could do to get James to calm down. After a while of nothing coming to mind she set off to search for him. It was just typical of James to always be around her when she didn't want to see him, yet be nowhere to be seen when she wanted to talk to him.

She had finally tracked him down back in the room they had been sharing up to the previous night, and she could tell that he knew she was there by the way that his back stiffened when she entered the room. She felt her heart wrench at the way he was behaving towards her, and she knew that she was partially to blame for it.

She watched him for a moment before she spoke.

"Where have you been? I couldn't find you anywhere," she asked him softly. He bent down to move around a few items of clothes.

"Just around, not that you really care. But don't worry, I wasn't off 'sleeping around'" he snapped at her.

Amelia felt like he had stabbed her with that comment, but she tried as hard as she could to ignore him. She knew that James was just trying to hurt her, and he had done a fantastic job of it.

"James I want to talk to you," Amelia said quietly as she watched James pick up his clothes, his back was turned to her but she knew that he was angry, she could tell.

"Well as you can see I don't want to talk to you," he snapped.

Amelia resisted sighing at him, instead she walked into the room and approached him, James moved away from her.

"What is wrong with you!" she snapped as she watched him pick up some more items and put them on top of his small clothes pile, before walking out of the room, she quickly followed him.

"Me?"

"Yes you! You're going around thinking that you're the only affected by this..." Amelia began but James interrupted her.

"How can I not think that when you've just stood there and acted like nothing's wrong! Like what we had between us meant nothing to you!" James roared at her as he stormed down the corridor and towards the room he had stayed in the night before, so he could begin getting ready for Dominique's birthday party later that day.

"How dare you!" Amelia seethed, her face turning red as she followed him. "You don't know what I felt... The reason I didn't want to talk about everything James is because it has been too damn hard!"

James stopped at the doorway of the bedroom; Fred and Mariah were already inside and staring at them.

"And yet now you seem to have miraculously been healed from your hurt and want to 'talk' about things? Well tough luck Amelia, it's a case of too little too late."

"You're acting so childish!" Amelia screamed at him, James just glared at her.

"Bit rich coming from you!" he snapped.

"Just hear me out ok?"

"What like you heard me out all those times? Is it one rule for you Amelia and another for me?" he threw his pile of stuff into the room before turning back around to face her. "Well I'm not doing this anymore, so go and find someone who gives a damn!" before slamming the door shut on her.

She let out a scream of anger before pounding on the door. She called James a few harsh names before she stormed back to her room.

Charlie poked his head around the doorway of his room and looked around. He noticed that Lucy was standing outside her own doorway and was looking towards where the source of the noise had been an anxious look on her face.

"Now Lucy," Charlie said, causing Lucy to jump and turn around to face him. "What in the name of Merlin's beard was that all about?"

Lucy shrugged as if she had no clue but Charlie could see the guilty look on her face.

"Lucy?"

"I don't know anything I swear," she said quickly before walking back into her room and closing the door behind her, Charlie watched her, a suspicious look in his eyes as he vowed to get to the bottom of the couples strange behaviour.

For most of the day James and Amelia had been bickering loudly, mostly noticed by a few of the adults, Fred and Lucy had tried to get them away from each other with the help of Rose and Mariah, who were trying to diffuse the situation before they could end up screaming at each other again.

"How on earth did this get so out of hand?" Rose cried loudly as Mariah had taken Amelia out of the room, asking her for help with her dress for Dominique's birthday party. James had already stormed off again; he seemed to be getting good at storming away from places.

Dominique had wanted to have a small party for her birthday with just her family, saying how she could see her friends when she goes back from her holiday. The adults had all heartedly agreed and it wasn't long before they all started work on fixing up the garden, which was the best place for the party to be held.

Some of the younger ones such as Albus, Roxanne, and Louis had been sent down the town to pick up 'essentials' for the party, which according to Albus was as much alcohol as they could carry. And Lily was helping Hugo warm up for his triangle solo he had written in honour of Dominique's birthday.

"I have no clue, they were getting on fine and she even said last night that she wants to start being friends with him again." Lucy stated, watching as Mariah walked with Amelia into the house.

"Friends?" Rose cried incredulously. "They should be more then friends, they should still be husband and wife"

"Oh come on Rose, it's a bit more difficult than that. He betrayed her trust and if he wants to stay in her life like he said he wanted to then he's just going to have to deal with this." Lucy said with a shrug.

"I suppose if it was me, I wouldn't want to speak to him ever again."

"She still loves him, she told me." Lucy said sadly, thinking of her friends and cousins predicament, sometimes she just wanted to smack both their heads together to make them see sense, but they were both as stubborn as each other when it came to this.

"James still loves her, but he's given up on trying for her," Fred told them, Lucy and Rose looked at him.

"No he can't! She's only just starting to see sense." Lucy cried. Fred just shook his head.

"Then we better hope that we can make him try again," Fred stated with a sigh. "And we best hope that no one else notices what is going on in the meantime."

"Uncle Charlie knows," Lucy said a few hours later, catching up to Fred who was about to walk into the garden for the party. Everyone had gotten ready, Rose and Lucy getting ready with Amelia, to help keep her distracted and away from James for the time being. Mariah joined them as well before rushing off to meet Albus.

"What? How did he find out?" Fred asked looking around them for a sign of Charlie but not seeing anyone.

"He heard them arguing, he just came up to me and told me he knew everything."

"I wouldn't be surprised if everyone heard them arguing," Fred muttered, the two cousins quickly walked into the garden and over to an empty table so they could talk to each other.

"I know for definite that Mariah overheard them, she was in the room with me when James and Amelia came down to us," Fred said still looking around them for a sign of anyone listening to them.

"Does she know exactly what's happening?" Lucy asked quickly, her eyes widening, at the rate Amelia and James were going everyone was going to find out quickly. "I mean I know she was helping us earlier... but does she know why they're arguing?"

"She's a smart girl; I think she figured it out. It didn't help that James was cursing Amelia's name and yelling to himself about how he should have never asked her here in the first place."

"Well that's going to do it. And she'll tell Albus." Lucy said with a small sigh.

"I know for a fact that she won't," Fred said jumping to Mariah's defence,

"And how do you know that?" Lucy asked.

"Because I made her promise not to, and she agreed that it was up to James to tell Albus not her."

"She's really a great girl isn't she?" Lucy stated looking around the garden and seeing Albus and Mariah giggling together and giving each other a quick kiss.

"I think she's good for Albus."

"Uh-oh," Fred added, Lucy looked away from Mariah and Albus and over to where Fred was looking. James had stormed in the garden and had gone straight over to where the alcohol was laid out, Amelia had entered a few moments later, as though she had tried to talk to James but he had walked off from her. She glared at him before walking over to the opposite side of the garden.

"Looks like trouble is going to happen."

A/N: Cliffie? I think so. But this needs to happen for the next chapter! The next chapter I've had planned from the beginning so I can't wait for you all to read it.


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: This is quite a big chapter, a lot of stuff happens in this, stuff that needs to happen and what I've had planned from the start.

* * *

"What should we do?" Fred asked, looking over at James who was glaring angrily at Amelia before grabbing hold of another drink and downing that one quickly. Ginny's eyes flickered over to her son and she shook her head at him. "Because I think people are beginning to notice that something is wrong."

Lucy shook her head, having no clue at all. "I suppose we could...err... lock them in a room together again? That seemed to get them talking to each other last time."

"We could ... Or...OR!" Fred ran off at those words leaving Lucy to watch him, she let out a sigh before deciding to walk over to where Amelia was sitting with a drink in her hand that someone must have brought to her.

"Hey," Lucy said softly as she took a seat next to Amelia. Amelia attempted to give her a smile, but she couldn't hold the smile for long before her face went back to a scowl.

"I would ask how you were..." Lucy began; Amelia took another swig of her drink before she interrupted her.

"Oh I'm just peachy can't you tell?" Amelia snapped. Lucy ignored the harshness in her voice, knowing that Amelia was just tired from staying up the night before and annoyed at James.

"Have you tried talking to James yet?" Lucy asked, slightly worried about the answer that Amelia would give.

"Does it look like we're talking Lucy?" Amelia snapped again, having another gulp of her drink, this time finishing it.

"I'm just asking Amelia" Lucy said with a sigh.

"I know Lucy, and I'm sorry ok?"

Amelia stood up quickly and seemed to storm back across the garden, pushing her way passed a few people who were dancing. The song that was playing changed to another song that Amelia recognised almost instantly, she stopped in her tracks and felt sadness flood through her as the woman began singing. It was the song that James and Amelia first danced to at the reception that their families had thrown for them after their impromptu wedding.

She blinked quickly as she looked up and saw that James was watching her from the other side of the room. She shook her head before walking off of the dance floor and further down the garden as memories of how happy her and James used to be flooded through her.

She stopped after a while and just stood, her eyes closed tightly. She heard footsteps following her before coming to a stop near her; she could feel his presence next to her.

"Just go away, I can't deal with you right now," she snapped, opening her eyes quickly and crossing her arms over her chest.

"Well you're going to have to," James told her, Amelia heard the angry tone in his voice and knew that they were going to end up having an argument, James would see to that.

Lucy and Fred followed James and Amelia and watched them. Within minutes of them finally talking to each other after ignoring each other the whole day, they were yelling at each other. Lucy let out a frustrated cry as Fred cursed loudly.

"I thought that was going to work!"

"Well that was a bloody brilliant idea Fred wasn't it?" Lucy yelled, turning around to see if anyone else could hear them and trying her hardest to shield James and Amelia from everyone, they were almost as loud as the music and people were beginning to look over at them curiously.

"Well it's the only one I had! I thought that the song would bring back memories of their wedding and make them want to just forgive each other, you know, have a little dance..." Fred cried. "We need to stop this and just get them away from each other," he walked over to James who had his jaw clenched angrily and Amelia who was red in the face from screaming.

"Look guys just calm down ok? You're both tired, you've both been drinking. There is a time and place for this and now is not it."

James shot his cousin a filthy look "This has nothing to do with you Fred so just shove off!"

"Now what are we going to do?" Lucy asked Fred, grabbing his arm and pulling him away from James and Amelia.

"We need to get Albus; he'll be able to talk some sense into James."

"But Albus doesn't know about James and Amelia," Lucy hissed after Fred as she followed him, chancing a look behind her at James and Amelia who were still screaming at each other.

"Well if we don't figure out something soon then everyone is going to find out about them."

Fred ran up the flight of stairs, he had searched everywhere he could think of outside but couldn't find Albus anywhere, he had left Lucy to go back to James and Amelia. His only other hope was that Albus had gone back to the room they were sharing. He opened the door in his haste without knocking on it and instantly regretted it.

Letting out a scream of shock, Fred quickly ran out of the room and slammed the door behind him, shielding his eyes and sobbing quietly at having seen more of his cousin and his cousin's girlfriend then he cared to.

A few moments later Albus ran out of the room, closely followed by Mariah. Each of them having thrown on their clothes haphazardly, Albus was buttoning up his shirt and Mariah was straightening her rumpled dress.

"What on earth is your problem Fred? Because I was busy," Albus said annoyed at his cousin who was still quietly sobbing on the floor.

"You didn't have to see it. Oh the horror." Fred cried still having his hands over his eyes. Albus kicked him.

"Oh don't be so dramatic!" he chuckled at him, throwing his arm around a smiling Mariah, her cheeks flushed red with embarrassment.

"I am going to be having nightmares for the rest of my life!"

"What was so important that you had to ruin Mariah's engagement present?" Albus asked. Fred looked up quickly at his words.

"Engagement?" he asked quickly. Mariah smiled before she pushed her hand forward so Fred could see the ring on her finger.

"Albus asked me earlier," Mariah beamed before placing a kiss on Albus's cheek. Albus smirked at her.

"Congratulations!" Fred said, standing up straight and hugging Mariah. "I just wish I hadn't seen ...well... that," he pointed towards the room they had just left.

Albus and Mariah let out a laugh before they all fell into silence.

"So..." Albus said looking at Fred who had shoved his hands in his pockets and was rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet.

"So" Fred repeated.

"What did you interrupt us for? This little chat? Because I must say that it is riveting."

"No! NO! We need your help urgently downstairs!" Fred cried suddenly remembering why he was finding his cousin. "It's James and Amelia, they're having this massive fight downstairs and I know that you're the only one who can convince James to walk away from it."

Albus raised an eyebrow, "What are they fighting about now? Has James been a prick again?"

"Yep got it in one" Fred stated before looking quickly at Mariah who was watching them. "He's been drinking which isn't helping the situation at all."

"Yeah an angry James and alcohol do not mix well." Albus stated before beginning to walk down the corridor quickly, Mariah holding onto his hand now and following him, Fred catching up quickly.

"So what did he do this time?" Albus asked, Mariah and Fred shot each other a look.

Albus raced over to James who was centimetres from Amelia and growling down at her in a quiet voice, Albus could tell it wasn't something pleasant by the way that Amelia was shaking her head at him and backing away. A few of their family members had now joined Lucy in attempting to get James and Amelia to calm down and it seemed that the argument had escalated more since Fred had left to go get Albus, who had now arrived next to James, Fred following closely.

"You don't love me anymore do you Amelia?" James yelled at her, "You gave up on me pretty easily didn't you?"

Amelia stopped her walking away from him, anger building in her, she had been trying so hard not to make a scene but he seemed to want nothing more than to let everyone listen. She turned around to face him, walking back over to him.

"I did not give up easily on you!" Amelia said her voice only managing a whisper as tears stun at her eyes, "I love you more than anything else in this world." by now everyone was staring at them.

Fred and Lucy with the help of Rose began trying to pull the couple away from each other but they just pushed them away as they got closer to each other, Fred standing between them and facing Amelia but they continued fighting over his shoulder.

"Then **why** are we doing this!" James screamed at her, he had pulled at the side of his hair in his drunken frustration, causing it to stick up at a funny angle.

"You two need to calm down and cool off!" Ginny growled coming over to the pair grabbing hold of the top of James's arm, attempting to pull him away. Her eyes flicking around to see that everyone was staring at them all. But James stayed where he was glaring at Amelia who was being held back by Fred, who had somehow managed to get them a few feet away from each other.

"What on earth is going on," Ginny hissed staring angrily at the both of them.

"Why don't you bloody well ask her?" James snapped pointing at Amelia. "She's so hell bent on not making this work!"

Amelia felt anger flood through her, more anger then she thought she had.

"Do you want me to tell them why James?" Amelia screamed fiercely, tears now streaming down her face.

James paled slightly but Amelia didn't care anymore.

"Shall I tell them that you ruined everything? Tell them that you broke my heart? Tell them that you destroyed my life? And that my whole world seemed to just crumble around me because of what you done!" Everyone was looking at them in confusion; Amelia ignored them and continued, ignoring the look that was crossing James's face.

"Nothing can be the same again James can it? Because this is just an illusion of a perfect marriage isn't it? our 'perfect' marriage was shattered... When you **cheated** on me!"

There were gasps around the room, each person looking at the other in shock, wondering if James had in fact cheated on Amelia.

"What?" Dominique said loudly. "When the hell did that happen?"

"Maybe it was the other day when they had that fight?" Hugo said looking at Roxanne and Charlie who were shrugging. But their questions were not answered as James and Amelia had begun yelling again. The adults were all staring wide eyed and open mouthed not knowing how to help break up the situation. There were too many people trying to break James and Amelia away from each other for them to use their wands.

"I have done everything I can possibly think of to say sorry, but you won't even try to forgive me though will you?" James shouted, shoving his brother off of him again as he tried to get to Amelia again. "Get the hell off of me Albus!"

Albus shook his head as he pulled James again, James turned to glare at Albus who stood up to his brother.

"No! You're acting like a pair of idiots!" Albus told him, James turned away from his brother and looked over at Amelia. "You need to stop this!"

"Oh don't worry it is over! Because I've had fucking enough of Amelia," James yelled angrily, more angry then Amelia had seen James in a very long time. This only made her angrier at him; she pushed Fred out of the way and moved over to James who was backing away from her.

"You've had enough? YOU?" She said with a laugh. "What about me huh? What about what you done to me? I don't know why I even bothered coming here with you? Merlin knows what I was thinking, I must have been insane! I should have left as soon as I got here."

"Go on then!" James roared at her, glaring at her over his brother's shoulder. A dark look in his wide eyes, he either didn't care that Albus was shoving him backwards and that others were yelling at them or he was too angry to notice anymore. Him and Amelia were still within close proximity, the only thing separating them seemed to now be Albus.

Amelia felt her eyes clouding over with tears, blinking them away they fell down her face fast but she didn't care. "Fine," She said through gritted teeth. "Fine. You can go to hell Potter!"

She turned away from James and began walking away, shoving off Lucy's grasp and ignoring the family's concerned faces and words.

"I've fucking been there Amelia!" James yelled after her, she could hear him struggling with Albus behind her. She could hear Albus yelling at James to get back and calm down, but he was paying him no heed. "But you don't seem to care about that do you? You cold. **Heartless. **Bitch."

Amelia stopped in her tracks and whirled around, storming over to where James was now being held back by Uncle Charlie, Albus was doubled over and panting as though James had hit him. She grabbed hold of a goblet of wine out of Rose's grip and raising her hand, prepared to throw it at James. There were loud screams and Charlie's eyes were wide as he would be in the firing line. But someone snatched it out of her hands before she could throw it. Turning around fast she saw that Mariah had the goblet and was backing away from Amelia. Amelia seethed angrily before she stormed forward towards James.

"What's wrong Amelia? Scared to hear the truth?" James taunted her angrily, Charlie hissed at him to stop it and others were trying to get Amelia to move away from James, but she shoved them out of her way and walked straight up to James who was glaring down at her.

Amelia growled at him before she brought her hand up angrily and slapped James across the face as hard as she could, the sound of it echoed around the room and Amelia could hear the winces of others. Her hand began stinging but she ignored it.

"You bastard," She cried, her voice shaking with her emotion as tears stung at her eyes, James brought his hand up to his red cheek and was looking at her in shock. "How dare you. Not only did you put me through the worst thing that's ever happened to me in my life but you **dare** say that I don't care and that I'm heartless. It's you that's heartless James. You were the one that destroyed this; you were the one that destroyed me!" She backed away from him angrily shaking her head.

"So don't you dare!" She seethed, "Don't you bloody well dare make me out to be the bad guy here! You ruined it! You ruined everything, and I'm done James. I can't take it anymore." And with those words she turned on her heel and walked towards the house.

"FINE! Go then!" James yelled angrily after her. Most people were torn between staying with James and going after Amelia, everyone clueless as to what to do.

"Albus, take James away have a word with him, calm him down just do anything" Ginny snapped taking charge, trying hard not to judge her own son on what had just happened but finding it extremely difficult to. "I'll go after Amelia, try and calm her down as well."

Albus had managed to get James away from the rest of the family and back over to where people had been sitting by the dance floor. James had grabbed a bottle before Albus could stop him and had begun swigging the contents from it, moodily pacing around.

"She was the best thing you have ever had in your life and you do this? I thought you were better than that!" Albus yelled at him, his opinion of James had gone downhill after he had found out from Fred just what had happened between James and Amelia.

"Yeah well it shows that I'm not ok? Why do you even care?" James growled in annoyance, Charlie, Fred, Ron, Percy and Bill were beginning to make their way over to where Albus and James were, to help out if the situation got out of hand again.

"Because I look up to you James!" Albus snapped.

James just gave him a fleeting look before he let out a mocking laugh "Then you are the idiot."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Albus asked him.

"Because it's got nothing to do with you, any of you for that matter. It's between me and Amelia."

"Well there won't be anymore you and Amelia if you don't go after her!"

"There hasn't been anything between me and Amelia since the year started. She has made sure of that."

"It's not just her fault, you done a stupid thing and if you care about her at all you will go after her James!" Albus yelled at James who was angrily pacing around the garden, angrily kicking at trees and punching at fences, a bottle of wine in his hand the contents of which were spilling out occasionally.

"No!" He growled turning to face Albus, "Why the hell should I?"

"Because she's leaving, Go after her and sort this out."

"Did you not see that in there?" James asked pointing down to further down the garden.

"Yes and I think you're both fucking idiots, especially you!"

"She's not going to leave," James snapped drinking deeply from the bottle before letting it drop to the floor next to him.

"Then why the hell is she packing James?" Lucy asked him, appearing next to Albus out of breath and red faced as though she had run down here. James stared at her for a moment before shaking his head and looking away.

"Fix this James! Before it's too bloody late." Lucy snapped, still breathless.

"It's already too late! She was never going to forgive me"

"She was!" Lucy yelled angrily, James turned to look at her again, a frown on his face. "Last night after you two had that fight I stayed in your room with her, and she told me that she was going to give you a chance. She stayed up all night waiting for you. And now this happened. I don't know what you can do, but you need to do something!"

James didn't give her a chance to say anything else as he sprinted back into the house, he pushed passed people, including his father who was trying to get him to stop and talk to him.

"Amelia!" he cried rushing around the corner to see that Amelia was already making her way to the door, ignoring the family trying to stop her and now James who had arrived.

"Amelia don't do this!" he pleaded.

"Go away James! You've done enough! Just get away from me!" Amelia screamed through her tears as she dragged her bag behind her. James grabbed hold of it to stop her, his own eyes swimming with tears.

"Don't do this, please. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for what I said, for what I done."

"It's too late James!" Amelia shouted trying to pull her bag away from James who was still holding onto it tightly. "It's too late."

"Please," James said, Amelia finally managed to get her bag away from James and was rushing off quickly towards the door. Waving her wand the front door opened, a loud slam echoing around the crowded room as it reverberated off of the door. She walked as quickly as she could away from the house. James was running after her and was pleading with her to stop. The Weasleys, Potters and some of Dom's few friends that she had invited all followed, eager to see what was happening. Lucy had her hands over her mouth; Mariah was wishing so hard that James and Amelia would work it out, Rose and most of the female adults had tears in their eyes. Everyone was watching in alarm and shock at what was happening in front of them. A grown man, crying and begging for his wife not to leave him.

"Amelia please! We can work it out, I'll do anything. Don't leave me again." James cried grabbing hold of her bag again and tugging on it. Amelia whirled around again, her tears almost clouding her vision from the amount that were falling fast down her cheeks. Her wand was pointed in front of her at James.

"Get off!" She screamed again her heart aching in her chest as she saw the devastated look in James's eyes. "Stop doing this to me James. We can't work anything out, we can't."

James refused to let go of the bag, even though a wand was pointed at him, this bag was the only thing between Amelia staying and leaving him and he was clutching hold of it with as much strength as he could. He couldn't lose her again, he just couldn't.

"You'll have to charm me off before I ever let go of this and of us." He told her, not bothering to wipe the tears on his face.

Amelia gave him one more look before she let go of her bag, causing James to tumble backwards still clutching it. He barely had time to sit up straight before Amelia waved her wand and disapparated on the spot. James could only look in horror as his wife disappeared, letting out a loud scream of her name he threw himself forward, desperately trying to grab hold of the air as though he could grab hold of Amelia, but she was already gone.

He patted his pockets quickly, the bag forgotten next to him now; searching for his wand but it was nowhere to be found. He turned around to his family.

"I need a wand! Quick someone give me a wand!" He screamed at them hoarsely, "I need to go after her! She can't leave me... she..." And with those words he let out heartbreaking sobs and curled up on the floor, crying his heart out.

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A/N Don't hate me! There's only six chapters of this story left!


	21. Chapter 21

It had taken Amelia two attempts to apparate home through her sobs and tears. She had to unlock her front door with a spell from her wand as her keys were in the bag that James had grabbed hold of.

That was two hours ago and now she sat dejectedly on her sofa, she had managed to calm herself down and had finally stopped her tears from falling. Letting out a small sigh she looked around the dimly lit room, thinking about how she shouldn't have even gone with James in the first place and how much of an idiot she was for believing that they could work things out. But as much as she thought this she knew that she still would have gone if she was given another chance, she had just missed James so much, and she had hoped against hope that James would have followed her home begging her for forgiveness and not taking no for an answer, but he never showed and this made her feel angrier the more she thought about it.

Standing up she ran a hand over her face as she made her way out of the room, pausing to pick up the picture of her and James in Las Vegas on her way, she ran a finger over the two people laughing and kissing in the picture as she felt another tear slip down her cheek. If only she had known what was going to happen she would have tried to save them, she hugged the picture to her chest as she made her way to her bedroom, she was exhausted but she knew that she wouldn't be able to get any sleep.

"James open the door!" came the voice of Albus, followed by a pounding on the wood and a jiggle of the doorknob but no one could come into the room. James had made sure of that.

After trying unsuccessfully to get a wand off of anyone he walked back to his room, wiping his eyes with his clenched fists, storming passed everyone who tried to stop him and up into the room that he and Amelia had shared. Slamming the door behind him and picking up his wand from the bedside cabinet, he waved his wand at objects around the room so they'd push themselves against the door. He didn't want to talk to anyone; he just wanted to be alone.

James looked up at the door from his place on the floor, and what he could see of the door, he didn't have the energy or willpower to tell Albus to just leave him alone, he was just hoping that his family would get the message. He just wanted to stay here and think about Amelia.

"You're going to have to go outside at some point."

James jumped and looked up at the open window to see that his father was climbing into the room through it.

"If you wanted to have hidden away James you should have thought to lock the window," Harry stated, jumping down onto the floor, a broomstick clutched in his hand. He placed the broomstick against the wall and walked over to where his son was sitting.

James looked down at the floor, hiding his face from his dad and pulling at some loose thread coming from the seam of one of his shoes.

Harry let out a deep sigh before he sat down next to James and placed his arms on his legs. James thought that he was going to lecture him but Harry was just sitting in silence, and James appreciated that a lot, he felt better having him sitting there with him.

James was still playing with his shoes when he finally talked.

"I'm sorry," James said hoarsely, his throat dry and stinging. Harry turned his head to look at him, James still hid his face.

"It's not me you should be apologising to," Harry said simply, James nodded. "And I don't only mean Amelia, James. You need to apologise to Dom, this was meant to be her birthday party after all."

James nodded, "I will, I'll make it up to her I promise."

They sat in silence again, Harry knowing that James would open up to him when he was ready.

"I didn't mean for this to happen," James told him, still pulling his shoes apart. "I didn't mean for it to get so out of control."

"What did you mean to happen James?" Harry asked. James shook his head slowly.

"I don't know," he shrugged "I guess... I just wanted to see her again, get her to talk to me."

"Why didn't you tell us as soon as you two broke up?" Harry asked his son who had finished pulling at his shoes and was just looking at the furniture in front of him. "Why tell us that she was at work all the time?"

"I didn't want you all to be disappointed in me, I didn't want any of you to tell me what an idiot I am and that I deserved to lose her after what I done."

"We would have been here for you like a family should have."

"I guess I just thought that she would forgive me before any of you found out and that we could just go back to normal. But no matter what I had tried she wouldn't even talk to me and Adam kept sending all of the letters back that I was sending Amelia saying that she didn't want to talk to me. And I already had so many people hating me, I couldn't stand to have you lot hating me too."

"But you kept this up since New Year's Day James, where have you been all this time?"

"I was staying in the Leaky Cauldron," he said simply.

"You should have come home."

James nodded before letting out a massive sigh, "I've really screwed everything up now, what do I do dad?" James asked him pleadingly, "What should I do to make this right?"

"I'm not too sure son," Harry answered truthfully putting his arm around James's shoulders. "I'm not too sure."

"Maybe mum can help me?" he asked with a small smile.

"I think that she'll try her best. And James don't you ever think that we wouldn't be here for you and that we wouldn't understand" Harry said his arm holding onto James's shoulders tightly as he gave him a one armed hug. "You can tell us anything and we will be here for you no matter what ok?"

James nodded.

Amelia was right, she didn't get a wink of sleep again last night, her mind still racing from what had happened. Instead she chose to go back into work and tell them that she was ready to go back early. They gave her questioning looks but Amelia told them that she needed to take her mind off of things and that she was able to start as soon as possible. They believed that she wanted to take her mind off of her family emergency that James had told them and she didn't feel the need to tell them any different, after telling her to get some rest they said that they would see her in two days.

And later on when she had arrived home it wasn't long until a visitor arrived. Her heart pounding in her chest as she opened the door, thinking that it was James she was surprised and relieved to see that it was Mariah.

"Oh... hi," Amelia said in greeting. Mariah gave her a small smile and held out her hand, Amelia's bag in it. Amelia stepped back to let Mariah in, and then closed the door behind her.

"I know it's a stupid question," Mariah started, placing the bag down on the floor and looking over at Amelia who was still hovering by the door. "But how are you feeling?"

Amelia gave her a shrug before answering truthfully. "Like giving up in all honesty."

Mariah gave her a sad look and Amelia had to look away before she started crying again. Wanting to ask so much about James it physically hurt to keep the question in.

"James is completely broken," Mariah stated as though reading Amelia's mind. "He's just such a mess. The only person he's seen or talking to is his dad..."

"I don't care," Amelia stated her voice wobbling, she coughed to try and cover it but she knew that Mariah had heard, and could see that Mariah didn't believe her statement.

"Maybe if you both talked without all of the alcohol and everyone around you could..." Mariah started.

"What's the point? So we can have a repeat of last night? I've got nothing to say to him and his got nothing I want to hear."

Mariah let out another sigh at the stubbornness that both James and Amelia had, they changed their minds about talking to each other so often she didn't know what to think anymore.

"You don't have to do this alone Amelia, I know we didn't talk much in school but if you want to talk."

"I appreciate that Mariah I really do, but I managed to get through this alone last time I can do it again this time."

Mariah nodded before she made her way back over to the door.

"Remember I'm only an owl away," she told her before exiting the room and leaving.

Amelia shut the door slowly and walked over to her bag that Mariah had brought in; sitting down on the sofa she began to open it. Her heart missed a beat and her eyes filled with tears again as she picked up the first item slowly, it was James's Quidditch jumper. She let out an angry scream as she balled it up and threw it across the room, her eyes swimming with tears as she stormed from the room and into her bedroom, grabbing the picture of her and James off of the bed and throwing it across the room in her rage.

It smashed against the wall, the glass shattering and the frame breaking as it fell to the floor. Waving her wand at where the picture had landed the glass began disappearing. She sniffed and wiped her tears with her hand as she chucked her wand onto her side and threw herself down onto her bed, letting herself cry again because of James.

She awoke what must have been a few hours later to the sounds of banging on the front door, stirring slightly she sat up slowly, her head aching and her eyes feeling puffy. She stood up grabbing a blanket off of her bed and wrapping it around herself as she walked out of the room and towards the source of the noise. She opened the door slowly and peered out, wandering which family member of James's it was this time. She gave a small smile as she opened the door and saw that it was her brother Adam leaning against the doorframe and smiling down at her.

"Hey Lia," he said walking forwards and engulfing Amelia in a hug.

She pulled away from him and looked up at him with tears filling her eyes against her will, all she seemed to do lately was cry. "What are you doing here?" she asked him.

"Can't a guy come to see his sister once in a while? I did try and call around last week but you were gone, I had no note, no owl sent to me. I had no clue where you went I was worried," he told her honestly, Amelia wiped her eyes with her hands as she walked into the kitchen, she heard Adam following her, throwing a bag she didn't see him holding down by the sofa in the front room.

"I'm sorry, I only thought I was going to be gone for the weekend," Amelia told him as she turned on her kettle and waited for it to boil.

They stood in silence as the drinks were made and they had taken a seat opposite each other at the table.

"What are you really doing here Adam?" Amelia asked running her hand over her dishevelled hair, she felt drained of energy and the coffee she had just sipped she doubted would do much good.

"I was told that my little sister was hurting."

"Who told you?" she asked, wondering just who would tell him, knowing that it was extremely unlikely that James would tell him anything anymore.

"I got an owl from Albus about an hour ago," he told her, she gave a small nod thanking Mariah in her head, knowing that she would have put Albus up to sending the letter.

"Did he tell you what happened?" Amelia asked sipping her coffee again and looking at her cup intently.

"Yeah he did. James is such a prick Amelia," Adam said drinking some of his own drink.

"I said harsh things to him too," Amelia said wondering why she was sticking up for James, it's not like he deserved it.

"Yeah but what he done to you was a lot worse."

Amelia nodded slowly before shifting in her seat slightly.

"I'm sorry," Amelia said catching Adam by surprise.

"What are you apologising for?" he asked her.

"If it wasn't for me or this then you would still be best friends with him And I went and ruined everything."

"Hey now none of that!" Adam told her sternly. "Don't think like that. If he hadn't have been a stupid idiot we would still be friends."

"But you had been friends for so long."

"There are things more important than that. In my life you come before my friends and it'll always be that way. He deserves to lose you after what happened."

Amelia gave a small nod as she looked down at her cup, watching as the wispy clouds from the steam disappeared.

"I still love him though," she told him not looking up at him. "And I want him back more than anything."

He shifted in his seat slightly. "I know you do Lia," he stated. "And as hard as it is for me to see you go through all of this, it's your decision to make not mine and I can only stand by your side."


	22. Chapter 22

A/N: Here is the next chapter for all of you lovely readers! :D

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She still couldn't sleep.

It was nearing four in the morning and she was still wide awake staring at her ceiling. She knew that it would be impossible to try and attempt to sleep as she would have to get up for work in little over two hours. Why she agreed to go in early was beyond her! Although it wasn't, it was getting her mind off of James.

She knew the reason why she couldn't sleep and that was because she was too scared she was going to dream about him. Not that she didn't think about him all the time, but in her dreams she would make believe that everything was ok and they were playing happy families because nothing had gone wrong between them, only to awake and feel the cruel pain stabbing at her heart when she realised that it was just a hopeless impossible dream, and nothing more.

She let out a sigh as she sat up and pulled her tired weary body out of bed and wrapped a dressing gown around herself. Shivering slightly from the chill in the air she made her way quietly out of the room and towards the kitchen, knowing that she was going to need a few cups of coffee to keep her awake for her shift today, which was thankfully only a short one.

After she had made her coffee she walked slowly into the front room, sipping on her drink as she moved. She stopped when she reached the doorway to see her brother laid out on the sofa, an arm over his face and the other dangling off of the sofa. She gave a small smile as she backed out of the room. She didn't know what she would have done if her brother hadn't have shown up. She was entirely thankful at having him here and reminded herself to thank Mariah and Albus for owling him later on.

She chose instead to go back into her bedroom and sit on her bed, placing her cup on the side and picking up her book as she stifled a yawn. She really needed to get some sleep soon; she was beginning to run on empty. She looked back over at the time and let out a groan, not long before she would have to have a shower, she really couldn't be bothered with today.

James was staring ahead of himself; he seemed to do this a lot since Amelia had left. He kept replaying the situation over and over in his head and he could do nothing but blame himself for everything that had happened that night at the party. As it was, most of his family seemed to blame him for that night too, thankfully today they hadn't told him how much of an idiot he was or lecture him on what had happened and he was thankful for that.

He had tried apologising to Dom about ruining her birthday but all she wanted to know was if he had talked to Amelia yet and fixed everything, to which James responded by walking away from her, which resulted in Dom calling him a few not nice things. She would have followed him around the house if it wasn't for Albus coming to his rescue.

Albus was a whole different story, not once did James think that Albus would be serious about anything and here Albus was, one of the only people who would talk reason with James and actually listen when James opened up to him. No one was more surprised about this then James.

It had been almost two days with Albus being serious and helpful and it was starting to freak the family out slightly, no one had seen him run around in his boxers or less. And he hadn't been heard making sexual innuendos at anyone within touching distance; James's wasn't sure whether he should be pleased about this? He also wasn't sure if he liked grown up Albus? For one Mariah didn't seem to mind either way, they were still somewhat disgusting together when they thought they were alone. James supposed some things were never going to change.

"You're coming back home with us" came his mothers soft voice from next to him. James nodded his head slowly not answering her or responding. He hadn't been very responsive since he left his room and his family were starting to notice and avoid him as they tried to get back into enjoying their holiday but he knew that no one was up for celebrating anything.

"I'm not having you waste your money at the Leaky cauldron when you have a perfectly good room at home."

Once again James nodded.

"Would we need to go to the room you had and get your stuff?" Ginny asked, referring to the Leaky Cauldron.

"No, it's all upstairs in the bags I brought," James stated, shifting in his chair slightly to turn and look at his mother.

Ginny could see just how broken her son was by the look in his eyes, and even though she thought that what he done was a terrible thing, she couldn't bring herself to yell or scold at him. He knew what he had done, could feel the pain he had put Amelia and himself through.

She reached forward and pulled her son into her arms. He clutched hold of her tightly and buried his face into her shoulder. She rocked him slowly and rubbed the back of his hair, instantly reminded of when he was younger and had hurt himself, how he would always run to her so she would hug him and tell him that everything was ok until he felt better. But this was something more than a motherly hug could fix, no matter how long she wanted to keep hold of him.

"We're here for you James. Don't ever forget that." She told him, she felt him nod his head against her shoulder.

"You got more letters," came Adam's voice as Amelia walked into her front room and kicked off her shoes, before sitting down on her sofa. She looked around the room as she heard Adam walk away from the kitchen and towards her, noticing that Adam had tidied up for her. She looked up at him with a thankful smile as he handed her a cup of coffee and placed what looked to be a dozen letters onto her table.

"I don't want to read them," she told him simply. "I don't want to have to deal with them asking me how I am and that I should try sorting everything out with him." She shook her head as she sipped on her hot drink.

"Do you want me to send them back?" Adam asked her, as he sat on the armchair adjacent from her.

"If you wouldn't mind," she said with a smile. "What would I do without you Adam?"

"Fall apart," he told her.

Amelia let out a small scoffing laugh. "You don't know how close to the truth you are."

Adam looked at his sister intently as she put her cup down on the table and rubbed her eyes tiredly, she looked so tired and pale and he didn't like it.

"Have you slept yet?"

Amelia shook her head sadly before she rubbed her eyes again, stifling a yawn.

"I can't Adam," she admitted. "I'm just too scared that all I'll see is him."

Adam put his cup down on the coffee table and stood up from his chair, moving over to the sofa that Amelia was sitting on and sat down next to her. He put an arm around her and pulled her into a hug. She leant against him and let out a low sigh.

"I know you are, but there's always the chance that you won't and you need your sleep Amelia, you can't afford to be tired, especially at your job."

"I know," Amelia mumbled still hugged up to her brother.

"Do you want to listen to the radio?" he asked her, he felt her nod against his shoulder and he reached into his pocket for his wand and waved it at the radio across the room. Music soon filled the room and they both listened quietly.

After a while Adam was getting tired of the music and wondered if there was a Quidditch match on another station.

"Hey do you mind if I try finding a Quidditch match?" he asked Amelia who hadn't moved from where she had hugged up to him. When he didn't get a response he looked down at her and saw that she had fallen asleep.

'Finally' Adam thought with a smile as he moved her gently off of his shoulder, attempting to get up and lay her down on the sofa without waking her. Once he had managed to stand up and Amelia was now laying on the sofa he placed the blanket he had been using at night over her and left the room quietly, waving his wand at the radio as he left so it turned itself off.

A loud knocking filled the flat after Amelia had been asleep for about an hour, Adam raced to the door annoyance filling him wonder who on earth was going to wake up his sister. He pulled the door open before the person could knock again and risk waking up Amelia.

"What the hell is with..." he stopped as he saw that James was standing at the door, looking at him slightly shocked. "What the hell do you want Potter?" he hissed.


	23. Chapter 23

A/N: No you're not seeing things, I have updated again! Woo. :D I really hope that you're enjoying my story and I am loving all of the reviews I've been getting. All of you lovely readers mean so much to me!

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James looked at Adam in slight shock. Not having seen his best mate in months he was trying hard to resist pulling him into a manly hug and ask how everything had been in his life. But James knew that they were never going to be that close again. It hurt him a lot to lose the closest friendship that had lasted the whole of his Hogwarts days and have it be completely destroyed, so much so that Adam seemed to only feel hatred towards him. Something which James knew he flat out deserved.

"I won't be asking again Potter," Adam growled in a low voice. It stung at him to have Adam refer to him with his last name.

"I'm ..." James ran a hand through his hair in awkwardness, he had had a whole speech planned out for when Amelia opened the door and now that Adam was here it had completely thrown him off track. He should have realised that Adam would come to make sure his sister was ok. "I want to...er... I want to talk to Amelia."

"Well she doesn't want to talk to you." Adam snapped before going to close the door.

"Please." James said pushing his foot in the way; Adam looked down at his foot before glaring up at James.

"Why the hell should I do a damn thing for you!" he growled once again in a low voice.

"I just want to talk to Amelia ok? And then I'll go." James said going to walk into the flat but Adam made sure to block him.

"Somehow I'm not thinking so."

"It's my flat you can't stop me from going inside!" James snapped annoyed at Adam.

"Well unless you feel like going through me, you're going to have to go and get the ministry involved won't you?"

James fumed slightly as he ran another hand through his hair. "Look I just want a few words with her; you can at least give me that."

"I'm giving you nothing." Adam told him standing with his arms crossed over his chest.

"I don't even have to bloody come in Adam! Bring Amelia here."

"She's not coming near you."

"Well we'll be seeing about that won't we?" James snapped before yelling into the flat. "AMELIA! AMELIA!"

Adam shoved James angrily, causing James to stumble backwards to the floor.

"What the hell is wrong with you? She's bloody well sleeping!" Adam hissed at him, glaring down at his ex best friend getting up from the floor. "She has not slept for days and if you have woken her up there will be hell to pay James! I don't give a damn that Amelia made me promise not to lay a finger on your bloody head; I will come after you if you so much as dare make another noise that would wake her up."

James took a deep breath, nodding his head at Adam and knowing that he would make good on his threat. "Look Adam I'm sorry."

"Yeah you've been nothing but sorry haven't you?" Adam spat at him harshly. "You know I can't believe you! Doing what you done and then having the bloody cheek to ask my sister to pretend to still be with you, when you had already put her through hell."

"Look I wasn't thinking." James started but Adam interrupted him.

"You never think do you? Don't think that anyone else can hurt apart from you."

"I know you're angry Adam but..."

"Oh you don't know how bloody angry I am. I warned you! I fucking warned you not to break her heart and not to mess her around but you didn't listen!"

James hung his head as Adam glared at him, both the boys being the same height, Adam a bigger build then him though. "I'm sorry alright?"

"No it's not alright!" Adam yelled at him forgetting to keep his voice down in his rage. "You didn't only ruin Amelia's life, you ruined our friendship! We were best friends for so bloody long James, you were more like a brother to me and now I hate you more than I ever thought I would, and I blame myself, because if it wasn't for me convincing her to give you a chance back when you first got together, then she wouldn't be this broken."

"Adam..." James began but Adam was already backing away from him.

"Just do me a favour. Leave her alone; let her get over you please. Because it's killing me seeing her like this and not being able to do something about it."

Before James could answer him, Adam had already walked back into the flat and closed the door behind him. Adam leant his back against the door as he ran his hands over his face roughly. He let out a deep sigh before looking in front of him to see Amelia staring over at him, tears filling her eyes. He knew that she had witnessed most if not all of what had gone on between Adam and James. He stood up straight and held his arms out; Amelia was quick to hurry into them. Adam knew that now was not the time to think about his feelings in this and that he had to be there for his sister, he would be able to deal with his own thoughts and feelings after she was ok.

Amelia returned home from work at around seven in the evening, still exhausted she relished in the fact that she would have the next day off of work so could try and catch up on her much needed sleep. She yawned loudly with a stretch as she made her way to the kitchen. Adam was out with a few work mates, to which Amelia had to force him to go to as he didn't want to leave her alone. It took a lot of reassuring to convince Adam to stay out with his friends but she had finally managed to convince him by saying that all she was going to do was sit down with a good book and maybe a glass of wine.

A knock on the door brought her out of her thoughts and made her stop suddenly and turn to look at it her stomach dropping in fear. What if it was James?

She edged slowly to the door and peeked out of the spy-hole to see Lucy Weasley looking around the hallway. Amelia opened the door slowly, the feeling in her stomach reducing but not going away completely, she had been avoiding even opening Lucy's letters to her, including the ones from some of the other Weasleys. Adam had replied to all of them saying that Amelia wasn't ready to talk but that she appreciated them thinking about her, it was a nice gesture and she was thankful.

"Hey," Lucy said softly taking in her friends appearance, Amelia almost rolled her eyes, she knew she looked a mess, she looked as tired as she felt and she couldn't be bothered to even attempt to make much of an effort with her hair, leaving her face make up free.

"Hey," Amelia mimicked leaning on the door slightly as she looked at her.

"You haven't been replying to my letters," Lucy stated simply, Amelia felt ashamed as she fidgeted on the spot.

"I'm sorry but I just can't even think about everything."

Lucy gave her a small smile, "which is why I've come to you, to take your mind off of everything and try to cheer you up."

"I really don't feel up to anything Lucy," Amelia told her; Lucy raised an eyebrow before lifting up a big bag in her hands.

"I've brought wine, chocolate, magazines and Albus's diary."

Amelia felt a smile fill her face, she doubted that she had Albus's diary on her but she knew that Albus had one.

"And I promise that I will not bring up the taboo subject the whole night," Lucy told her as Amelia let her into the flat, closing the door behind her.

"Thank you Lucy." Amelia told her, feeling slightly excited for the first time in days.

Lucy gave her a smile.

"The only thing I'm going to ask is if you're ok?" Lucy asked her, putting her bag down and looking over at her friend.

"I'm coping as much as I can," Amelia told her truthfully. Lucy gave her a small comforting smile before clapping her hands together.

"Now where are those glasses? We need to start drinking."

The first bottle of wine was gone within the hour and they had just begun the second. Amelia hadn't felt this happy in so long and she really liked it. They were lounging on the floor of the front room, laying on Amelia's quilt from her bed as they ate the chocolate and Lucy read excerpts from Albus's diary from when he was back at Hogwarts, she wasn't lying when she said she had it.

Amelia laughed loudly as Lucy read out loud Albus's inner turmoil at hating Mariah but wanting nothing more than to jump her fine body and booty.

"Who the hell says booty anymore?" Amelia said through laughter.

Lucy let out her own giggles. "I have no clue! Wait ...listen to this one... 'Dear Diary, I tried to tell Mariah how I felt about her through interpretive dance just like Fred suggested, we even practiced out on the field. But Mariah seemed unimpressed. Instead of running over to me with lust in her eyes she kicked me in the shins and shoved me into the lake whilst yelling at the top of her lungs that I was a 'pervert' all because I was rubbing myself (non sexually) whilst shimmying! Who doesn't like shimmying? She's crazy I tell you. I had to spend five minutes trying to get out of the lake without the Giant Squid eating me. Fred is going to die in the morning... And possibly Mariah.'"

"Who would have thought that they would have ended up together?" Lucy added.

"Who would have thought that that dance would have worked?"

"My stupid cousins apparently, I swear Albus was dropped on his head as a baby... he is not all there in the head, he's mental." Lucy said with a shake of her head.

"He's probably lost brain cells from being whacked around the head with Mariah's beater bat during Quidditch."

"Do you remember when Mariah shoved Albus off of his broom during Slytherins Quidditch practice because he tried rubbing his arms in her face?"

Amelia let out a laugh. "I love the fact that everyone just left him there on the floor and carried on practicing."

"It was only five foot off of the ground. He was fine."

"He did whine a lot and everyone was just ignoring him."

"Because he broke his arm!" Lucy laughed again. "He was such an idiot. He could have got up himself and walked to the hospital wing, but he wanted to be carried."

"Good thing I saw sense and took him up to the hospital wing!"

"Yeah with my help!" came Adam's voice as he entered the front room, the girls both turned around to face Adam, not even realising that he had arrived, their laughter had probably drowned out the sounds of his key in the door. "You alright Lucy?"

"I'm good thanks you?"

"Very good. I'll go into the kitchen leave you girls alone." Adam said going to back out of the room "It's good to see you smiling Amelia."

Amelia could only smile at her brother in return as he winked at them both and left the room.

"Your brother is nice," Lucy whispered staring at Adam's retreating form.

Amelia rolled her eyes at her friend before hitting her with a cushion from the sofa. Lucy stopped staring at where Adam had gone and turned to look at Amelia with a laugh. "What?" she cried.

"We're not starting that again are we?" Amelia said with a laugh.

"What?" Lucy asked innocently. "It's only a crush!"

"That you had back in school as well. Besides you have a boyfriend!"

Lucy let out a sigh, "Well I don't think I will be soon, things have been a bit strange for a while."

They spent the rest of the night talking about Lucy and her muggle boyfriend, Amelia listened as Lucy told her about how hard it was living a secret life. Her boyfriend didn't know that she was a witch and it was getting harder and harder to make up excuses. She didn't want to admit it but listening to another couples problems helped her take her mind off of her own, because she was so immersed in helping her friend that she didn't have time to worry about her broken relationship with her husband.


	24. Chapter 24

Amelia woke up happier that morning. Feeling a lot more energetic then she had felt the past few days. She stretched and looked around the room, grabbing for her dressing gown and pulling it on as she got out of bed and stood up, walking slowly out of her room, a delicious smell wafting through the flat.

"Finally awake," Adam said jokingly as Amelia made her way into the kitchen, he was standing at the cooker pushing around the contents cooking in the frying pan.

"How long have I been asleep?" Amelia asked grabbing a glass and getting herself a drink of water.

"A good fifteen hours," Adam said looking at his watch quickly.

Amelia swallowed and looked at him in shock.

"Wow. I can't believe I slept for that long."

"How lazy of you! I've already been to work and started dinner for us," Adam joked, Amelia rolled her eyes at him.

"Where's Lucy?" Amelia asked rubbing her eyes and stifling a small yawn.

"She said something about breaking up with her muggle boyfriend," Adam told her, still stirring the contents of the frying pan. "She promised that she'd be back in time for dinner though."

Amelia raised her eyebrows at her brother. "I did wonder what special occasion had to have happened for you to start cooking lasagne."

Adam shook his head at his sister, but she could see a slight red tinge to his cheeks.

"We just had a talk this morning before I went to work. I just told her to come round more often because it was cheering you up." Adam told her with a shrug; Amelia resisted the urge to smirk at her brother.

"It was a good night, I'm glad she stayed," Amelia stated, putting her empty glass in the sink. "If Lucy's coming around I best have a shower and get changed."

Adam pretended to sniff her and pull a face. "Yeah I think it's best if you do, we don't want to scare her off with the smell," Amelia hit Adam as she laughed, leaving the room shaking her head at him.

Amelia had spent the next week splitting her time between work and seeing Lucy and Adam with Lucy coming around for dinner whenever Amelia wasn't working the night shift.

Between Lucy and Adams company they were helping her slowly feel almost back to normal, she had no clue what she would have done without them. Although she suspected that sometimes Lucy was coming around to see Adam. She didn't mind though, it was entertaining watching the two flirting together; she didn't see it being long before they began dating.

James' mind was still preoccupied with Amelia and Adam, he hadn't tried contacting them again, much to the chagrin of most of his family who were beginning to annoy him with their constant looks at him and talks about him. The only comfort he could bring to himself was that Amelia wasn't replying to any of his families letters either, he didn't know why this made him feel slightly better but it did.

"You need to start paying attention James," came the gruff voice of his co-worker Brent Cross.

James's eyes flickered up to his co-worker who had stopped walking and was pointing across the clearing to where a medium sized Dragon was sleeping, curled up around some rocks. The ministry had sent them down here after getting a tip off from a few wizards, that the Yellow coloured Dragon had almost been spotted by a few passing muggles who were going to be camping nearby. It was James and Brent's job to try and secure the Dragon before the rest of the team could show up.

They edged closer to the beast that was still asleep, almost thirty feet away from them now.

'Amelia just needed to calm down,' James thought as his hand edged towards his pocket where his wand was located, 'hopefully she just needed time for this to all blow over. That wouldn't take long would it?'

James's foot trod on a few twigs causing them to snap loudly under his feet, he felt his stomach drop as he looked up eyes wide at the Dragon who had been woken by the noise and was growling at them, more so James.

Before James could reach for his wand to protect himself the Dragon reared its head and let out a loud ear splitting roar as he blasted a stream of fire at James.

The last thing James remembered before blacking out was the unbearable pain and what smelled like his own flesh burning off.

"Can you file these papers for me please Jayne?" Amelia asked passing the receptionist a folder before looking down at her watch. "And I can finally go home."

"Got any plans?" Jayne asked as she placed the folder on her desk.

"I think my brother and my best friend are taking me out for dinner," Amelia said with a smile as a door burst open behind her, she turned around quickly to see a bandaged patient being wheeled into a single room, where she knew a trainee healer was preparing a room for the unknown patient they had been told a few minutes ago would be arriving. They had been told the patient was badly burnt, but it seemed all of the other healers were preoccupied with other patients.

Jayne rushed around from her desk and passed Amelia so she could grab a few notes off of the people who had transported the patient into the room they had just left.

Jayne's eyes flew across the page as she got the details of the family she would need to contact or the next of kin, as Amelia walked passed her already sanitising her hands with her wand and pulling some gloves on, knowing she couldn't leave a trainee to deal with this on her own.

"Amelia!" Jayne called after her, her eyes wide and her face paling. "Amelia! I can get someone else..."

"Don't be silly Jayne this is my job!" Amelia said as she walked into the room to help the trainee, she had to tend to the patient before their family began arriving.

She walked over to the patient and looked down at them to assess the extent of the wounds. She stopped dead her hand flying to her open mouth as tears filled her eyes quickly. The patient was covered in bandages that covered most of his torso, the white being tinged with a darkening red, and a thick paste was covering half of his bruised and blistered face leaving him almost unrecognisable, but she would recognise that face anywhere.

"James!" She choked out; the trainee healer was staring at her awaiting instructions on what to do next and wondering just why Amelia was being affected this way.

"Healer Campbell-Price what should I do?" the trainee asked.

But Amelia was shaking her head, she was only vaguely aware of Jayne telling the trainee something before the trainee rushed from the room.

"What happened to him?" Amelia asked, she had quickly regained her composure enough to fall back into healer mode. Ignoring the tears falling down her face as Jayne looked down at the notes.

"Mr Potter's co-worker said that a Dragon fired a jet of flames at Mr Potter causing him to be blasted off of his feet into the rocks. Which were described as being over fifteen feet away, the large tear in his torso was caused by this trauma. He was knocked unconscious as soon as the fire hit him."

Amelia nodded waving her wand and causing more liquid to cover James' face before moving to the bandages covering his chest. Whoever had done the first aid at the site had done a very good job; if they hadn't then James would more than likely have bled to death.

Her hands shook as she removed the bandage revealing the true extent of the damage to James. She felt her head spinning as she tried to stem the bleeding as much as she could from the large gash, before attempting to seal it with a spell from her wand.

She tried to take in a breath as her hands began shaking more violently as the wound began slowly closing and the blood flow stemmed. Her tears were beginning to cloud her vision.

"Amelia?" Jayne asked worried as Amelia took a step back from James. She was shaking her head as she tried to regain control of her breathing, it was becoming too hot.

She needed air. She needed to get out of this room.

She was trying to tear her gaze away from James whose breath was becoming shallow. He was hurt and she couldn't take it. What if he was seriously hurt? What if he never regained consciousness?

Amelia managed to move towards James again, calming her shaking hands as much as she could. She was a Healer; if she didn't tend to James then things could get worse. She blinked quickly so she could see and took in deep breaths. A pink paste began attaching itself to James's wound.

"Healer Campbell-Price," Said a voice behind her, Amelia turned to see the head of the burns unit Jeremy Spelling.

"You may step out I can handle this," he told her before moving over to James. Amelia all but ran from the room. As she exited the room she tore the bloodied gloves from her hands and disintegrated them with her wand before shoving it back into her pocket, but it still felt like James's blood was on her hands.

She took in deep breaths as she felt herself slowly begin to fall apart. Leaning back against the wall behind her she hung her head and covered her face with her hands as she began sobbing loudly. She would never forgive herself if James didn't recover.

As she sobbed she heard what sounded like a group of people running down the corridor and over to the reception desk which Jayne must have returned to.

"I need to see my son!" demanded a panicked voice, Amelia looked up recognising it, she didn't bother wiping her eyes knowing that more tears were going to fall. "He's James Potter, I got a floo saying that he had been brought here!" Ginny's distressed voice carried around the room; Amelia began walking slowly over to her quickly.

"I'm afraid you can't see him yet, the healer is with him now," Jayne told her.

"I want to see him!" Ginny Potter demanded angrily.

"I'm sorry, I can't let..."

"Look," Harry said walking forward as Ginny seethed and threw her hands in the air in annoyance, Albus and Lily were glaring at Jayne who was recoiling, Amelia could see that Albus was looking pale and Lily looked like she was about to burst into tears. "I want to see Amelia our daughter in law, Healer Pot... I mean Healer Campbell-Price she can let us know what's happening."

Amelia felt a few more tears fall down her face at Harry's words, to hear Harry still refer to her as his daughter in law after everything that had happened made her heart swell slightly.

"I'll just get her," Jayne muttered taking a few steps away from her desk.

"Harry..." Amelia choked out through a sob, the entire Potter family and a thankful Jayne all turned to look at her.

"Amelia!" Ginny said with relief as she engulfed Amelia in a tight hug before pulling away, her own face becoming more ashen at seeing Amelia's tears. "Where's James? What happened?"

Amelia wiped her tears again.

"A Dragon shot fire at him," Amelia managed to say through sobs, Lily burst into tears at her words and hugged onto her father tightly who was looking as pale as Albus. "He got blasted into some rocks..."

"Shit!" Albus cried, running his hand through his hair as he paced slightly, looking like he was trying to fight back tears.

"Healer Spelling is treating him, I was there when he come in and I tried so hard but I ... I couldn't...I just... seeing him lying there," she fell into loud sobs again, Ginny wrapped her arms around her, tears in her own eyes. "I can't lose him, I can't!"

They were sitting in silence in the waiting room for what felt like days, but had only been under two hours. Amelia was told to go home an hour ago by Healer Spelling but they both knew that she wouldn't, Spelling understood this and let her stay.

He gave them the news that James was stable, but they wanted to keep him unconscious so they could try and fix the various broken bones in his arm and his broken ribs, although it was likely that they wouldn't be able to heal them entirely with magic. Amelia nodded knowing that it was routine to try and keep the patient unconscious through this procedure as the pain would be unbearable, telling the Potter's this.

"This is just like the time when he set his leg on fire because he left his wand in his pocket and it sparked on him," Lily stated her face blotchy and tear stained.

"He's such an idiot," Amelia said with a small smile, the others let out a small chuckle. "He spent most of his stay here trying to get me to go out with him."

"One of the many times he got admitted here," Harry said with a shake of his head. "He seems to be extremely accident prone."

"No he done it so he could see Amelia more," Albus said knowingly. "He was crazy about you. He kept bugging me to no end about it."

"It would have been better if he did actually attempt to clean his burn when he was let out instead of letting it become infected just so he could keep coming back." Amelia shook her head as she laughed at the memory of her husband.

"I knew that was the reason he wouldn't look after it!" A voice interjected.

They all turned their heads to see Adam and Lucy had entered the room, Amelia stood up quickly and gave her brother a big hug.

"You didn't need to come down here," Amelia told him as Lucy went to say hello to her family. Amelia had sent an owl to Adam to tell him what had happened and that she wasn't able to make dinner.

Adam pulled away from her. "I had to be here, for you and for James. How is he?"

"He's stable, they're working on his broken bones but I don't think they'll be able to mend all of it, some of them are badly broken, wouldn't surprise me if they were shattered."

"He'll fight it, he's a very strong and determined guy," Adam told her, rubbing her arm comfortingly before turning to face the Potters.

"It's nice to see you again Ginny and Harry," Adam said giving Ginny a hug and Harry a handshake. "And Lily and Albus look at you two!"

"Yeah I'm fully grown now!" Albus told him, interrupting the hug that Adam was giving Lily by engulfing them both.

"That's good to know," Adam said with a laugh as they all moved away from each other.

Adam sat down as he began a conversation with Harry and Ginny. Amelia watched them for a moment as they chatted away about what Adam had been up to since they last saw him, before turning to look at the doorway. How long would it be before they could go see James?

They had been waiting at least three hours before the healers deemed James stable enough for the family to go and visit him. Amelia insisted that the Potter's go first, not wanting them to know just how scared she was to see him. They each gave her a hug before they exited the room to see James, leaving her with Adam, Lucy had left a few minutes ago so she could let the family know what was happening.

It felt like she had waited years but finally it was her turn to go see James, as she walked to the room James was in she gripped hold of Adams hand tightly, her knees felt weak and she was feeling quite sick. She waited at the door for a moment before she went to walk into the room, stopping when she realised that Adam was waiting by the door.

"You go on, I'll see him in a minute," he told her letting go of her hand. "You have your time alone."

Amelia nodded thankfully as she walked further into the room and sat down next to James, who was still unconscious.

She looked at him carefully, taking in all of the bruises starting to form over his face and the swelling that had started to go down. His arm was in a cast and bandages were wrapped around most of his cut and badly bruised torso.

She raised a hand and pushed his hair gently off his face.

"You're an idiot you know," Amelia said to James's unconscious form as she moved her hand down to his and held it gently. "You just had to get attacked by a Dragon and get sent here didn't you? Missed me that much hey?" she attempted a joke, but her voice faltered.

"I'm sorry," she wiped her eyes with her hands as she looked at him. "For everything that happened, I shouldn't have acted the way that I did. But you needed to know just how much you destroyed me."

She raised his hand to her face and gave it a kiss, before she rested the side of her face on it, looking at his face to see if he had made any indication that he had heard her but he didn't even twitch.

"I felt so empty without you though James, even when I thought I was moving on I knew that I never would without you, I've realised that now, the holiday and what's happened now has made me realise that life is too short and I don't want to be without you in my life anymore," she moved his hand back down onto the bed before she rested her head on the pillow next to watched him for a while before she let out a sigh, knowing she would have to go home soon so she could sleep before her shift in a few hours.

"I love you James."

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A/N: Only two chapters left my lovely readers and reviewers! Let me know what you think of this chapter! Finally some James and Amelia love, even if James is a little unconscious at the moment :D.


	25. Chapter 25

A/N: Heya! How are you all? Only one more chapter after this one and then it's completed, so sad! :-( I do have a Prequel and a Sequel kind of written, in fact I've written a few chapters of each so I shall start uploading them as soon as I can if anyone is interested in reading them? :D I hope that you enjoy this chapter.

* * *

She was able to visit James's room throughout her shift the next morning, but his condition very much stayed the same. She spent all of her break times in his room and most of the time she wasn't working in there too. The Potters were there every visiting time that they could manage, they had told the rest of the family that there was no point in James having any other visitors.

It was on the third day that James finally woke up.

"Where am I?" James asked with a croak as he swallowed, grimacing with the pain of it all.

Amelia who had been on her day off was over the other side of the room, rearranging everything just so she would have something to do, turned around quickly at the sound of his voice, jumping wildly.

"You're in the hospital," Amelia told him as she moved quickly over to his bedside. He turned his head slightly at the sound of her voice so he could see her out of his un-swollen eye.

"Amelia?" He asked in surprise, Amelia felt elation fill her as she let out a small shaky laugh, her eyes watering slightly as she took hold of his hand.

"Yeah..." She sniffed as she sat down next to him. "Yeah it's me."

James just looked at her in stunned silence before glancing down at their hands entwined.

"How are you feeling?" She asked him gently, he looked back up at her face as he let out a small cough as though trying to clear his throat before answering.

"Like I've fallen off of the Astronomy tower and hit every brick on the way down," he told her honestly. "I can feel my skin burning." he raised the hand she wasn't holding slowly to his face letting out a small howl at the pain he felt before he dropped his hand again slowly, it was the one with the cast on it.

"James don't try to move," Amelia told him letting go of his hand gently and standing up, checking his side quickly to make sure nothing was coming undone or bleeding. "You've been through a lot"

James frowned slightly before he remembered the Dragon and what happened. "Dragons are dangerous," he stated. "Wish someone warned me before I tried to make a career out of being around them."

Amelia felt herself smile, only James would be able to make a joke whilst in this much pain.

"What's the weird feeling on my face?" he asked her as she checked his charts quickly to see when the last time he had any sort of potion was.

Amelia looked up at him and saw that he raised his other arm this time, only causing him to wince slightly as he placed his fingers on his face where a large amount of paste was placed. Amelia gently pulled his hand away with her free hand and wiped his fingers of the excess paste.

"I wouldn't touch that if I were you," She told him. "It's a paste that's helping to your skin to rebuild itself, you were burnt pretty badly. James how much pain are you in?" she asked him, placing the chart back down, seeing that he was due a pain relief potion soon.

"Quite a lot, did the Dragon stand on me or something?" he asked, looking down at his plastered arm.

"You've shattered a lot of bones James, you were blasted into some rocks," Amelia told him as she measure out a vial of potion from the cupboard on the other side of the room and walked over to him. "It's going to take a while before you're fully healed."

Thankfully James was already partially sitting up, propped up on his pillows. It would have caused him massive amounts of pain to move him to take the potion if the healers hadn't thought ahead to move him gently whilst he was unconscious. James held out his good arm for the potion and Amelia handed it to him.

"I want you to drink it all up James," she told him, James looked at it sceptically; it was a brown murky colour. "You'll be feeling drowsy afterwards..."

"Don't worry I won't be flying any brooms today. ...Looks delicious," he told her before he downed it in one gulp. "but tastes disgusting." he said before handing it back to her, she placed it back on the side before walking over to him and checking out his wounds again, making sure none of the bandages needed changing or any of the paste needed redoing.

"Will I be getting sponge bath with this service?" he asked with a joke as Amelia looked at his face searching for anything that indicated infection setting in. It all seemed clean and well on its way to healing. She gave him a smile as she shook her head.

"I think I can persuade one of the receptionists to do that," she told him with a laugh.

"That's a tempting offer," He said as Amelia leaned away from him and stood next to his bed, flicking her wand so the chart updated itself before pocketing her wand. "But who would like me looking like this?" he said with a laugh.

"I would," she told him. He looked up at her and she met his eyes, they fell silent.

"James I'm sorry for what happened..."

James lifted his good arm and grabbed hold of Amelia's hand.

"Don't be..." he told her slightly drowsily, "You've got no reason to be ok? It's not your fault."

Amelia gave him a small smile before she let took a small breath. "I should get in touch with your family and tell them that you've woken up."

"Can you just sit with me for a while?" he asked her, Amelia contemplated for a moment if she should before she nodded slowly and sat down, James let go of her arm and quickly found her hand. He squeezed it tightly as Amelia watched him from her seat. It wasn't long before he fell asleep.

"I wanted to ask you something," Amelia asked Ginny and Harry as they sat together in the waiting room, they had gone here so James didn't get disturbed. Amelia had brought the Potter's Tea and Coffee as they waited for James to wake back up.

"What is it Amelia?" Ginny asked taking a sip of her tea before holding it in her hands and looking at her.

"Well I was wondering if it was ok that I come over and help to look after James when he gets discharged from here. It'll help him because I will always be on hand for him to help give him medication and change his dressings and pastes without having to bring him up here all of the time. And ..."

"That is a really great idea Amelia, thank you for the offer," Harry stated interrupting her. "But I'm worried that you two will have another big argument like at the holiday and I don't think James is in the right condition to have to deal with that."

Amelia hung her head slightly at the mention of the argument. "I understand that Harry, but I do not want to go down that road again. Now that everything has happened I can't have him leave my life again, I just can't. And that means forgiving him, it's going to take a while I know that and sometimes it's not going to be easy but I want to try. I want to be there for him."

Harry and Ginny gave each other a quick glance before they turned to look at Amelia again. "It would be such a great help if you could come home with us. He's going to need your help now more then ever."

Amelia nodded, "thank you."

James was allowed to be discharged after a few more day, under any other circumstances the Head healer would never have allowed that to happen but as Amelia had told him that she would be by his side constantly to help assist him and care for him he agreed for it to happen, allowing Amelia to cut back on her shifts so she could work around looking after James and still coming to work. It was going to be a lot of work but Amelia was determined to do it.

"Are you ok?" Amelia asked after Harry and Albus placed James carefully onto his bed, Amelia placed some cushions behind him and Harry and Albus leant James against them gently.

"Yeah I'm fine, just hurts quite a bit." He told her, even though he had been sleeping a lot he looked exhausted, all of the potions and healing was really taking it out of him.

"Mum said after dinner I could give you a sponge bath," Albus said with a smile, James grimaced as did everyone else in the room.

"I'd rather stink thank you very much," James told him not sure if Albus was joking or not. Albus let out a loud laugh.

"Would you like me to get you anything big bro?" Albus asked. "Bearing in mind that this will be the only time that I'd be at your beck and call."

"Someone else to give me a sponge bath?" he asked with a smile.

"I don't know what everyone's obsession with sponge baths is," Amelia said as she placed all of her medical supplies on the side that Harry was clearing for her. "You are able to have a shower you know."

"Mariah gives me a sponge bath every night," Albus said with a smug grin as he winked at his brother, Harry turned around looking disgusted.

"It's a pity she doesn't do such a good job you still stink to high heaven," James stated laughing before wincing at the pain in his side.

"I'll have you know that this is my sexy manly odour," Albus said raising his arm above his head and sniffing his armpit. "The women just fall at my feet."

"Probably knocked out from the B.O." Harry stated, causing Albus to stalk from the room yelling about how he was going to rub his armpit on Harry's pillow. Harry was quick to run from the room knowing that Albus was more than likely about to do it.

"Are you sure he wasn't dropped on his head as a baby?" Amelia asked with a laugh as she turned to James.

"I think he was thrown."

Amelia let out a chuckle.

"How are you feeling James?" Amelia asked walking over to him and feeling his forehead gently. "Do you feel like you're burning up?"

"Aside from the obvious," he laughed before adding. "No, I don't feel like I'm burning up."

"Good, good." Amelia said with a smile as she looked around the room to make sure nothing else needed setting up. "Right your mum is just making you some food, will you be alright whilst I go home and get some of my things?"

"Are you going to be staying over?" James asked, Amelia could hear the hope in his voice and she had to stifle the smile threatening to escape onto her lips.

"How else would you be looked after James? I'm the only one who knows what they're doing," Amelia stated. "Even though your mother would do a wonderful job if I wasn't here. I can stay at home if you would like me to?"

"No... Please stay. I'd feel a lot better if you were here," James told her attempting to shrug and grimacing in pain. "What with you being trained and everything."

"I knew you were only interested in me for my healing skills," Amelia said with a small tut at James who smiled up at her.

"Well in my line of work it helps to know people in your line of work."

"If you weren't so hurt I would give you a slap," Amelia said playfully. "Now don't you get into trouble whilst I'm gone."

"I'll try not to" James laughed, watching her leave the room.

She didn't spend long at her flat, eager to get back to James. But the little time she spent there she was able to see Adam. Who said that he knew that she was going to be staying with him, he knew it the moment Amelia had told Adam that James was hurt.

"Are you sure you're doing the right thing?" Adam asked her as he helped her fold some clothes and put them in a bag.

"I hope I am Adam," she said honestly.

"You can always sleep in the bed you know," James told Amelia later that night, she was quietly setting up a bed on the floor.

"I don't want to hurt you," she told him.

"I can handle it," James said, Amelia knew that it wouldn't be wise in case she turned in her sleep and hit his broken bones. "I don't want you sleeping on the floor."

"James I'll be fine I promise you," Amelia told him as she sat down on the floor and looked up at him. "Did you need anything else before I turn the lights out?"

"No I'm fine," James told her, Amelia waved her wand to turn the lights out before settling under the covers.

James shuffled slightly in the bed and Amelia glanced up to see that James had moved himself to near the edge of the bed. His hand dangled down and Amelia reached hers up to hold onto it.

"Thank you Amelia. You don't know just how much I appreciate this."

"You're welcome," she told him. Holding onto his hand tightly it wasn't long before the two of them drifted off to sleep.

It wasn't that difficult looking after James; he needed help getting from place to place but seemed able to do most things himself, Amelia still changed his bandages and pastes and even though it must have really hurt sometimes, he never made a big deal of it. Although he was tired most of the time either from exhaustion or the pain relief potion, it didn't take long before James was back to his old self. And Amelia really loved spending all of the time with him, not having to hide a massive lie or having to make sure people believed that they were something they weren't.

They had started to spend most nights talking until one of them fell asleep, although Amelia still insisted on sleeping on the floor as James wasn't fully healed to have someone that close to him all the time.

"I can feed myself you know," James told Amelia as she sat on the chair next to him in the dining room, her legs tucked up underneath her. She gave him a shrug as she dipped the spoon back into the ice cream and then brought the spoon and some of the ice cream up to his mouth. James rolled his eyes but still opened his mouth.

"I know you can, but I've had enough and this way I can see that you're eating something."

"Ice cream isn't good for healing though," James laughed, the swelling on his eye had only gone down slightly giving him the look that he was squinting at people, Albus took great pleasure in calling him a pirate or Popeye. James winced as his ribs protested to his laughter.

Amelia picked up more ice cream. "You're not a healer so you don't know."

"Ok then 'Healer Amelia'," James stated. "Are there any health benefits to ice cream?"

Amelia gave him some more ice cream, "Well, no. But it's making you feel better isn't it?"

"Well yes but I think that's because of the sprinkles."

"The sprinkles were a nice surprise."

Amelia smirked as she scooped the last bits of the ice cream up with the spoon. "Look we're at the end now."

"You're making me feel like a child." James told her rolling his eyes at her behaviour but there was a smile on his face.

"Open your mouth for the Quidditch player!" Amelia said waving the spoon around as though it were flying, James obediently opened his mouth and ate the ice cream.

"You two are so cute," Lily said from the doorway causing Amelia to smile and James to pretend to fan his face with his injured hand in embarrassment at being caught.

"Oh Lily you're making me blush." He told her.

"Not like you can tell though with all that red on your face," Lily laughed. "Tomato face!"

"At least I stand out from the crowd," James said poking his tongue out at her. James's face was healing slowly; he still needed to wear the paste but not as often. His face was still covered in blisters and was almost bright red but he didn't let that get him down or his family's insults, he seemed to really enjoy them. Amelia barely noticed the wounds anymore having spent as much time in his company as she could. Ginny and Harry marvelled at just how well James was healing and knew that most of that was down to Amelia's healing abilities and the fact that James was so happy when she was around.

"So what are you after Lilykins?" James asked as Amelia placed the bowl down on the table.

"Adam's in the front room talking to mum and dad."

Amelia's face broke out into a smile at her words and she was quick to stand up and leave the room, she came back a few moments later with Adam following her.

Adam came into the room and sat down next to James, giving him a small smile. James was slightly worried when he saw him, the last time they had seen each other Adam had yelled at him. Amelia grabbed hold of the bowl and spoon and told them that she was just going to go into the kitchen. James knew that Amelia was giving them some time to be alone.

"I came to visit you," Adam told him as he leant forward so his arms rested on his knees.

"Amelia told me, you didn't have to do that you know."

"I was worried about you," Adam said with a small shrug. Before he let out a small laugh.

"Trust you to get nearly killed by a dragon. You were always crazy about dangerous animals," Adam shook his head at James who attempted to shrug.

"Tell me about it. You would have thought I would have learnt my lesson by now." James replied. They both sat in silence for a few moments.

"I'll never forgive you for what you've done to her," Adam stated, looking at his hands which were interlaced in front of him as he leant forward.

"Do you still hate me?" James asked, dreading the answer.

"Yes and no," Adam replied truthfully. "I want us to go back to hanging around with each other. If Amelia can stand to be around you now then I'm going to try. I've actually missed you a lot you idiot. And seeing you like that in the hospital was horrible mate..."

James nodded slowly. "I didn't have much fun either."

They fell into a few more minutes of silence before James spoke again. "Do you think we could go back to how we were?"

"Overtime maybe. We'll just have to wait and see."

"Thank you for coming here Adam, I really appreciate it," James told him. Adam gave him a small smile before clapping his hands together.

"Now enough of this mushy stuff James," Adam stood up. "There's a game of Quidditch on the wireless, how about we go listen to that?"

James nodded. "That sounds like a great idea."

"I suppose you want me to carry you in your highness?" Adam said reaching down and grabbing hold of James's good arm gently and pulling him up slowly. James winced and took a sharp intake of breath, before swearing loudly. Adam gave him an apologetic look whilst Amelia rushed into the room looking anxious.

"Oh James are you ok?" she asked as Adam held onto James to keep him steady and help steer him slowly out of the room.

"Yeah I'm fine just a bit of pain," he told her as he stepped slowly, his leg aching and his side feeling like it had been punched by a troll.

"You need to stop babying him Amelia! You worry too much," Adam told her off playfully, giving her a wink. "You'd think he was actually hurt or something."

They walked into the front room together and Amelia helped Adam sit James down on the sofa, Amelia sitting down next to James instantly and Adam going over to the radio to tune in the Quidditch match. Ginny and Harry had left the room a while ago, they were going to visit Hermione and Ron so were getting ready.

Halfway through the Quidditch match Molly and Lucy arrived, bearing a bunch of flowers and a box of chocolates.

"Oh Flowers! For me?" James said brightly. "Please place them in the vase over there next to all of my other girlie presents. Please watch out for my jewellery box, I was sent that by a eligible suitor."

Molly rolled her eyes as Adam laughed at James. "These are actually for Amelia you plum head."

"Plum head?" James mouthed at Adam who shrugged before moving over for Lucy to sit down next to him.

"Oh thank you Molly that's so nice of you," Amelia said taking hold of the flowers and sniffing them. She stood up, giving both of the girls a hug.

"We did bring you chocolates though," Lucy told James, reaching across Adam to pass James the chocolates but Adam was quick to snatch them from her hands and open them.

"Hey!" James and Lucy cried as Molly helped Amelia place the flowers into the empty vase on the mantelpiece.

"I have to test for poisons!" Adam cried as though it were obvious, grabbing a few chocolates and eating some. "We don't want James more hurt do we? Oh no caramel! Definitely can't be having that one."

"Well thanks for the box." James said looking longingly at the chocolate; Adam fed James a strawberry one.

"Boys!" Molly tutted as she took a seat on the floor by the table, as Amelia sat back down next to James.

"How are you feeling James? You look terrible." Lucy asked, taking the chocolates off of Adam before he could eat anymore and placing them on the table. Adam looked slightly hurt as he stuffed what he could grab into his mouth; Lucy just rolled her eyes at him.

"Still in a lot of pain," he replied, the girls let out an 'awwww' "But the dragon looks worse off!"

"I bet you could have taken him," Adam said through his mouthful of chocolate.

"Oh definitely, but then I wouldn't have Amelia looking after me." James said looking fondly at Amelia who blushed.

"So how do you like Amelia looking after you?" Molly asked grabbing a hold of a biscuit from the plate on the table and nibbling on it.

"She's been really good. She should be a healer," James said smiling at Amelia who scoffed at him.

"I've been telling her that for years" Adam stated, having finally eaten the chocolate, with a shrug. "But she's just wasting her life on other things."

"You know I think I preferred it when you weren't talking to each other," Amelia stated. "you were both so much nicer to me!"

Both James and Adam laughed and Amelia gave them a fond smile, it was so good to see them talking to each other again.

"No in all seriousness, I don't know how I would have got through this without her." James said taking hold of Amelia's hand and bringing it up to his mouth placing a kiss on it, causing Amelia to blush again and smile widely.

"She seems to have done a fantastic job, I heard you looked a lot worse," Molly stated.

"Which was surprising," Adam laughed, James rolled his eyes at his friend.

"You better be fully healed for my wedding in a month." Molly told him seriously pointing at him with her half eaten biscuit. James let out a chuckle.

"Don't worry I'll try to be! I wouldn't miss it for the world. I'm head bridesmaid after all." He said grinning at her.

Molly tutted at James, "You've been spending too much time with Albus... And you better be there too Amelia."

Amelia smiled politely, "I'll try and be there Molly."

"No try about it," James told her. "You'll be my date."

Amelia grinned widely, "I suppose I have no choice in the matter."

"Well that's settled then!" Lucy said as she grabbed for a biscuit. "Let's just hope that James's face goes back to its normal colour by then or we'll have to put some make up on him," The others chuckled.

"Wouldn't be the first time," Molly laughed. They all fell into silence whilst Adam was looking at them incredulously.

"Do I not get an invite?" Adam asked hurt. Lucy rolled her eyes at him.

"You're my date!" Lucy said smacking him lightly on the arm. "You know you are."

They all began laughing again, before talking about Molly's upcoming wedding. They seemed to spend the next few hours in animated chat with each other and it wasn't long before they all had to go home so James could get ready for bed, he was due a pain relief potion and Amelia knew that he would fall asleep pretty soon after.

With a goodnight to Lily who was the only other person in the house, studying in her room, Amelia helped James walk slowly up the stairs and into the bedroom, helping him get changed. He left to go brush his teeth whilst Amelia got out his bandages and paste. James hobbled in to the room slowly a few minutes later and Amelia helped him sit down gently on the bed. She knelt in front of him and began changing the bandages on his torso, they were healing extremely well, and pretty soon he'll be able to not have them on.

After she had done that she waved her wand at James's face cleaning it, James was used to the feeling of this where at first it tickled as well as stung him, it was a strange combination.

She began rubbing the paste gently onto James's face and James felt relief at the coolness of it against his still burning skin. James stared at her as she worked away, loving how she always had such a determined look of concentration on her face that he found incredibly cute and he couldn't help but feel a rush of love for her.

Amelia finished rubbing the paste on his face and leant closer so she could see if everything was covered. Her eyes flickered up to James's and she felt her breath hitch in her throat. She felt a tremble fill through her body as without thinking she leant forward and placed her lips gently on his. Before James could respond though she pulled away quickly and hung her head.

"I'm sorry I wasn't think..." she began but she was cut off by James, who had reached his hand forward to her chin and tipped it up slightly so she could look back at him. Without saying a word he brought himself forward, even though it was obvious that it was causing him vast amounts of pain, and kissed her on the lips.


	26. Chapter 26

Molly smoothed her hair down carefully with her perfectly manicured hand, making sure not to disturb the hair too much so it didn't fall from its intricate twist on the back of her head, soft curls falling down either side of her face.

She smiled at her reflection in the mirror as her eyes fell down to her dress, twirling around slowly she made sure that it looked perfect.

"You look amazing," came Lucy's voice from behind Molly. Molly turned to smile at her sister who had just entered the room behind her, wearing a pale yellow bridesmaid dress that made her look stunning.

"Thank you, so do you," Lucy told her, looking around the room to see her other cousins getting ready.

"Where's Amelia?" Lucy asked.

"She's in the bathroom with Lily; I think Lily's helping Amelia get her hair ready." Molly said nodding to the bathroom door, as she said this Lily came out of the room, her dress also the same pale yellow as Lucy's. The door was quick to shut behind her.

"How's she doing?" Molly asked walking over to her cousin and straightening out Lily's bridesmaid dress; Lily rolled her eyes at Molly's actions.

"She's all ready. Amelia come out we're waiting."

"No I don't think I look good," came Amelia's voice from behind the door; Molly rolled her eyes and stormed over to the door.

"You come out here now Amelia! I bet you look fabulous," Molly called through the door, tugging on the door handle but it didn't budge. She could hear Amelia mumble a reply from the other side. "Don't think we won't break the door down because we will."

Molly let go of the handle and turned to look at a few members of her family who nodded at her in agreement at Molly's plans to magic the door open. There was a faint click of the door being unlocked and then it slowly opened. Amelia peeked out of the room slowly before Molly pulled the door open more.

There were a few gasps, and Lucy brought her hands up to her mouth as tears brimmed in her eyes. Amelia looked like a fairytale princess.

"See! I told you I look awful!" Amelia whined as she walked over to the mirror and turned around to look at the back of her dress in the reflection.

Molly shook her head as Lily beamed at Amelia. "You look so amazing! That dress is just gorgeous."

"James isn't going to be able to get through this without jumping you!" Lucy's told Amelia with a laugh.

Lily let out a disgusted, "Yuk! I do not need to know that!"

Amelia laughed as she turned around to face the mirror full on. She ran her hands over the beaded skirt which flowed out elegantly, Ivory patterns making their way intricately across the floor length skirt and making its way up the bodice like Ivy. It really was a beautiful dress.

"I can't believe that Victoire made this," Lucy said coming over to Amelia and running her hand over the silk material, Amelia smiled at her and could see that Lucy still had tears in her eyes.

"Lucy don't cry," Amelia said pulling Lucy into a hug; Lucy laughed as they pulled away and she carefully wiped her eyes careful not to smudge her mascara.

"I'm sorry it's just..." Lucy sniffed. "I never thought this day would happen again, none of us did. You have no idea what it means to all of us that you've decided to do this again."

Amelia gave her a smile, "You don't know how great it's going to be to remember everything about it."

Lily let out a laugh, "Well let this be a lesson to us all that we shouldn't be drunk and get married in Las Vegas."

They all let out laughs.

"Even though I can't really remember much of that day it was just so perfect and amazing," Amelia said reminiscing.

"It's such a James thing to do though." Lucy told them all, they all agreed apart from Amelia. "That rashness and spontaneous-ness is classic James. And this is just classic you."

Amelia looked up at her frowning slightly and Lucy continued, "Well it's like that wedding was entirely James and this one is just entirely you. It's really nice that you've both got the wedding that you wanted."

Amelia pondered what she said for a moment, "You know I think you're right."

"Oh my, it's nearly time. Over here girls let's make sure that everyone is ready," Molly said beckoning everyone over to her.

The others walked over whilst Molly gave them all a once over whilst Amelia stayed looking at the mirror and Lucy stood with her, careful to look over her shoulder to see if anyone else was listening. They weren't, Molly had them all engrossed.

It was a good thing that Molly had offered to do everyone's make up and Lily had offered to do everyone's hair, it was a much smoother operation with the family helping in any way that they could.

"So?" Lucy asked Amelia, who looked over her shoulder as well, checking that no one was eavesdropping and then turning to Lucy with nothing more than a smile. Lucy beamed at this and let out a small squeal. Amelia laughed before she walked over to Molly who gave her a quick once over.

There was a short rap at the door and Lucy walked over to it and opened it with the smile still plastered on her face. Amelia's dad was at the door wearing his dress robes, a smile placed across his excited face.

"Hello there Lucy, I'm here to collect the bride," he said out loud, before his eyes captured Amelia. "Oh darling! You look stunning,"

He walked over to Amelia and gave her a kiss on the cheek before beaming down at her with pride. Words seemed to fail him as he coughed a few times, Amelia felt herself begin to tear up at her father's loss for words and the others all let out aw's.

"Are you ready darling?" Amelia's dad asked the proud emotion thick in his voice. Amelia gave her dad a nod.

Molly clapped her hands together and called to the room, "Right everyone get in their places!"

They all lined up, Amelia's two bridesmaids stood in front of her and Molly walked in front of them. She wasn't a bridesmaid but she had helped out Amelia so much which she was thankful for. "Now I'm going to go and find my seat and I will see you all out there in a few minutes ok?"

They all nodded and Amelia took a deep breath as she felt butterflies flying through her. Molly smiled at them before she left the room. They followed a few minutes afterwards and walked out of the room and made their way outside of the house.

It had taken a few months before Amelia and James began their relationship again after the kiss, taking each moment slowly as though they had only just begun dating again. A few months in though James proposed to Amelia, telling her that it felt right to ask her to marry exactly two months into their relationship like last time.

Only this time there was no drunken wedding a few minutes after the proposal. Amelia was quick to agree although they decided to wait at least a year before they renewed their vows.

The garden looked a lot different from when she and James had stayed here with the rest of his family for Ron's birthday. Lights floated above them as though hanging on an invisible string, and chairs were set up facing a white altar covered in yellow roses, Yellow ribbon was strung around the area and yellow petals were strewn delicately on the make shift altar. Amelia felt herself beaming as she took in James standing next to Adam at the altar, he looked visibly stunned.

She blushed again as she saw James turn to look at Adam and mouth "Wow." Adam chuckled before clapping James on the back.

She heard the music begin as Lucy and Lily took the first steps onto the aisle of Rose petals, and everyone who had been invited to the wedding stood up and turned to look at them.

Amelia's eyes found Hugo and Louis who were part of the wedding band with Charlie. Hugo was playing the triangle enthusiastically, Louis was playing the guitar, and Charlie was playing the drums.

Not everyone could say that they had this weird combination of musical instruments for their wedding march, but it seemed to work incredibly well. That and the original wedding band had had to pull out at the last minute and this was the only replacement they could find.

As Lily and Lucy had taken a few steps Mariah joined them holding onto the hand of a tiny one year old, with jet black curly hair and an incredibly cute face that had such rosy cheeks all you wanted to do was just pinch them. Their walking got a bit slower but none of them minded at all. Amelia could see Albus beam with pride from where he stood at the altar with Adam and James as he watched his wife and son walk towards him.

Mariah and Albus had found out that they were expecting a baby a few weeks after James's accident and they had decided to get married in an extravagant wedding a few weeks later, how they managed to plan and pull off what could only be described as an spectacular show was anyone's guess but they pulled it off so well and months later little Pedro was born into the world.

As Pedro was the pageboy he was wearing a little suit with a small bow tie that spun around slowly, causing Pedro to laugh hysterically each time it passed his face which caused everyone in the vicinity to chuckle. It was obvious that his bowtie was picked by Albus and it was amazing that Pedro had kept his clothes on for this long; normally he pulled everything off of him and ran around in his nappy or nothing at all. Just like his father.

It had amazed Amelia just how quickly James had recovered from his wounds, sure his face still went bright red in places when the temperature went cold and he had that long scar that went across his chest but there was no other lasting damage, which her boss had said was such a remarkable thing to achieve with only one Healer, that he was training her to get a promotion in the hospital.

James moved back into their flat as soon as he had gotten better and Amelia didn't need to stay with him at the Potter's, he knew that he didn't want to live without Amelia for even a minute.

They spent many a day at their flat having dinners with Adam and Lucy who had developed into a serious relationship, so much so, that they had moved in with each other into their own flat which was conveniently just a few doors away from James and Amelia's, Amelia's life couldn't have worked out more perfect.

The wedding went without a hitch; surprisingly Albus and Pedro were kept in line throughout the entire ceremony.

"I love you," James told Amelia after he had kissed her deeply after the priest told him he may kiss his bride. The guests were all cheering loudly and Ginny and Molly senior could be seen wiping their teary eyes, Ginny was clutching the hand of Amelia's mother and they were both looking at them proudly.

"I love you too," Amelia said her face glowing, her arms wrapped around James's shoulders and her forehead was leaning against James's.

"You've made me so happy Amelia, happier than I ever thought I could be," James told her, kissing her again lightly on the lips.

Amelia couldn't keep the smile off of her lips even if she had tried to. "Oh I think I can make you happier."

James's raised an eyebrow questioningly, his arms still wrapped around his wives waist.

"I have a present for you."

"Oh I like presents, is it for later on?" he asked flirtatiously with a wink at her. Amelia shook her head as she bit her lip and removed her hands from around James's shoulder, James let go of her waist and she grabbed hold of one of his hands with her own and pulled it over her dress to lay flat against where her stomach was.

"I'm pregnant James."

* * *

A/N: So there we have it, the last chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it, I must admit that it is the cheesiest chapter I've written for this story haha. Thank you all so much for reading and reviewing, it means a lot to me. I shall try and get the sequel/prequel up as soon as I can, so keep an eye out for it :D


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